Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the Deputy's first question, the four acute units are included in the audit. I believed that this was very important.

The Deputy asked about Linn Dara. The Deputy will be aware that everything that we can do is being done. There was a report in the newspapers yesterday when I said there was capacity of 16 beds available in Cork. This is actually correct. There are 13 inpatients there at the moment.

To the end of March this year, thankfully, no child had been placed in a psychiatric ward so far this year. If there is capacity, sometimes the units in Dublin and in Merlin Park in Galway do gastro-tube feeding for young people with eating disorders if it is recommended by a consultant psychiatrist. The procedure is not available in Cork and this might be the reason the person was not sent to Cork even though there is capacity there with beds.

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