Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have a serious mental health crisis in Ireland. Communities and families are crying out for help. Front-line services and voluntary organisations are crying out for support. It is not an exaggeration to say that we face into a tsunami in mental health need, not least because of the pandemic. We know that children and young people are left waiting for far too long for mental healthcare. More than 4,000 children in the State are on CAMHS waiting lists and another 10,000 are on lists for primary care psychology services. Given the scale of the crisis, the €14 million in additional money allocated in the budget for mental health is paltry. It goes nowhere near meeting the level of demand.

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