Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Dillon for raising this issue. The proposal to establish a cross-governmental Youth Mental Health Pathfinder Project with participation from the Departments of Health; Education; and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth received ministerial approval during the previous Government. The Department of Health has engaged extensively with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and continues to do so with the objective of agreeing an implementation option that fully addresses the above issues. The demands on both Departments during the pandemic have presented challenges to progressing the proposals. There are various administrative, budgetary, governance and legal arrangements that need to be developed and agreed to ensure a robust and workable model for the pathfinder unit but I agree with the Deputy and this is something that we are looking at at the moment.

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