Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are all very upset and disappointed that it has come to the stage that 11 beds have had to be closed in Linn Dara.

Linn Dara is a fantastic facility. It normally has 24 beds and it has an attached school with five teachers. I was delighted to visit it last year. There are 51 funded posts for nurses in Linn Dara and there are 24 staff currently in place. From a patient safety perspective, the facility has been working at between 60% and 70% capacity for the last few months. I am aware that there have been challenges. Every effort has been made with agency staff and trying to bring staff in from multidisciplinary child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, teams in the community. Unfortunately, the issue with staffing is why beds have been closed. Four triaged young people are currently waiting for admittance to the Linn Dara facility. Some 50% of those are in hospital and 50% are receiving community supports. Across the whole country, 11 young people have been triaged and are waiting for supports.

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