Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It has to be resolved but the level of service is also expanding all of the time. The level of referrals is also going up exponentially. Covid-19 without question had an impact on the number of young people contacting their primary care services and their community teams in respect of mental health issues arising out of the pandemic. This has been a feature across the health service in the past six months as we emerge from the emergency phase of the pandemic where there has been an exponential growth in activity and in referrals, which is exacerbating the problems and issues we have. The funding has been provided to recruit as many people as we possibly can in all of the different disciplines, and that will continue. In the meantime, the Minister of State will work with the HSE to see what we can do, especially in respect of the Linn Dara facility. There is an urgency attached to that and I thank the Deputy for having raised it.

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