Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his questions and he has asked about quite a lot. I will try to cover as many matters as I can and we can get back to him in writing for the questions we miss.

I acknowledged the letter he sent about surge capacity in the private hospitals. The HSE has engaged with private mental health hospitals over the period of the pandemic to provide for additional capacity. The additional capacity includes the purchase of acute beds, as well as longer-term care beds that free up capacity in the statutory sector. The HSE has set up a project to provide for four cohorts of users in acute units. The HSE has met six different providers in the past couple of weeks and the plans are ongoing. We always use capacity in the private sector to supplement the beds we have.

The Deputy had questions on child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and the primary care waiting list. The Deputy knows I secured an extra €23 million for CAMHS in the budget and there will be 29 more whole-time equivalent staff members as a result. I want to tackle the CAMHS waiting list. There has been a significant reduction in the Cork and Kerry area in the past six months, and that should be acknowledged.

On the primary care waiting list initiative, I have had several meetings with representatives of the HSE primary care policy unit and we are giving consideration to options for developing an intervention to reduce the number of children on it. I am very concerned about this list. I met the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, last Thursday to discuss funding and work is ongoing to progress the waiting list initiative.

The Deputy asked about children and teenagers under 18 in mental health facilities for older people. The Deputy is well aware that figures were well reduced last year but I have said on record many times that one child in such services is one too many. I am working hard on that. We will get back to the Deputy on the rest of his questions if that is okay.

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