Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is my first opportunity to engage with the Minister of State in this brief. I believe her to be a decent person and I wish her the best of luck in what is a challenging brief. I hope she will use all her energy to try to change things. It will not be easy but it is vitally important she do so.

I wish to raise with the Minister of State two issues, the first of which I suppose has a crossover with the brief of the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, but I think it is relevant to her own brief as well. I refer to the day centres. We are still getting an awful lot of contact from staff as well as the families affected. They are upset and concerned. Decisions were taken in March of this year that we can all understand because of the situation we faced. Since March, however, people with intellectual disabilities and families with people with intellectual disabilities in their care have been under incredible pressure. They have borne it with dignity and patience but also a great deal of frustration and, I think, sadness and a sense of isolation. At the very best of times this can be almost 24-7, fairly intense and very challenging and difficult, but at this moment in time it is far more than that. The lack of day services is affecting the people themselves who avail of the services. There is a lack of routine and a limitation on social connections. It is having an impact on their physical health, their morale, the deterioration of their mental health and their sense of independence. That has a huge impact on them, but then it consequently comes to the home and to the parent, the sibling, the son or daughter or whoever it may be who is looking after them, and it becomes even more difficult and unsustainable. We urgently need to address this. We are finding this to be an issue and, as I said, there are many families concerned about it right across South Lee, whether Turners Cross or Ballincollig, and places in North Lee such as Farranree, Blackpool and Mayfield. A lot of these centres still have not reopened, so that needs to happen as soon as possible, and I know that the staff are anxious to see that as well. If the Minister of State could give more detail on this in her summing up, I would appreciate it.

The second point I wish to raise with the Minister of State is community healthcare organisation 4, which is Cork and Kerry, particularly as it relates to South Lee, in my constituency, which is always the poor relation, particularly when it comes to CAMHS, and always has the longest waiting lists. There are currently 411 people on the CAMHS waiting list in Cork and Kerry; 103 of them have been on the list for over a year, which is by far the largest number waiting this long of any community healthcare organisation; and 1,292 children are waiting for psychology appointments. To have children and youth in such difficult situations - crisis situations - and for them to be told the appointment is four months, six months or a year away is just not good enough. This also means that when the appointment comes, because there is so much pressure, sometimes the appointment is not really what it should be because the professionals are under pressure, and I appreciate that.

I always try to be constructive. I will conclude with a point I raised with the Minister of State's predecessor, Jim Daly. This is not going to happen overnight, but it seems to me very obvious that we produce any number of psychology students each year but that they cannot afford to be clinical psychologists. They cannot afford to go into that line of work because they have to take all that time to gain experience, not be paid further, get a very limited amount towards their education and sustain themselves at the same time. It is just not sustainable unless one comes from a background where there is a bit of financial support. I know there is a limited number of bursaries, grants and so on but it is nowhere near enough. We need to crack that. There are many people who are passionate about this, who want to help and who want to be psychologists and they cannot afford it. We need to address that.

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