Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is missing the point. Funding was not stopped. In 2020, €800,000 was allocated by my predecessor, former Deputy Daly, and the Tánaiste to develop the Castlerea hub. In 2021, we moved very quickly to put in place €1.4 million to allocate staff. It takes a while to put staff in place. This Castlerea hub is a fantastic hub and I am delighted to say I secured funding in this year's budget to continue the roll-out of telehealth hubs. We are going to see a further one in Cork and a further one in Limerick this year. Because of Covid-19 and the challenges with staffing in certain areas, it is important for young people to be able to access telehealth hubs.

I visited Castlerea before Christmas. I went along and met the staff that actually do exist and I spoke to them. On that particular day, young people availed of services. I visited the psychiatry of later life. There have been challenges with staffing, but psychiatry of later life is so important. Even in this year's budget I moved to get funding for three pilot sites to incorporate psychiatry of later life with integrated care programmes for older people, ICPOPs, that are being rolled out throughout the country.

The Castlerea hub is the cornerstone of how we are moving now in regard to care for young people, care for teenagers. It will be funded going forward. It pains me that it takes quite a while to get staff in place, especially when the posts are funded. Previously we would not have had the staff because we would not have been able to fund them. The funding is in place and the most important thing now is that we get on with that particular service and support all the young people and the older people who need mental health supports.

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