Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question. We have discussed this matter several times in the past three and a half weeks.

Six of the 35 recommendations in the Maskey report have been implemented, with 13 currently being implemented. Having read the report, the Deputy will know that some of the recommendations can be implemented straight away but others will take time. The HSE has committed to implementing them all as quickly as possible. I have sought fortnightly updates from the HSE on progress. I will continue to do that.

On the current situation, I meet the chief officer, Michael Fitzgerald, three or four times a week. I met him last Thursday morning on the very issues raised by the Deputy. The consultant psychiatrist post at south Kerry CAMHS is, unfortunately, still vacant. That has not changed just because the report was issued. The HSE does not expect to have a permanent consultant in the short term and on that basis it has put additional support into the team. A dedicated consultant lead is in place and additional support is provided by other consultants. Online consultant appointments have been offered. In the long term, the HSE will establish a clinical support team in Killarney to provide a point of contact and support in the future. This will take a little time to do. The HSE will be in direct contact with the young people and families shortly with details of that clinical support team. The HSE has been working over the past couple of weeks to get this clinical support team in place.

As the Deputy will know, the 227 families were invited to a meeting. To date, 198 have taken up the invitation to that meeting for the purposes of open disclosure. They have been informed of the situation in regard to each young person. As rightly stated by the Deputy, some of them are now over 18 and they are getting support in adult services. We can put in place supports such as talk therapies, cognitive behavioural therapies and the psychosocial supports that these people need. We are working towards that. I will come back on the other issues in my next slot.

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