Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am not trying to avoid responsibility but, for the sake of clarity, CAMHS will not be moving over to my Department. CAMHS will continue to fall within the remit of the Department of Health. It is not moving over with community-based specialist services. I do, however, take the Deputy's point about the issue of dual diagnosis, that is, cases in which there is a disability diagnosis and a mental health diagnosis as well. It has been an issue that one or two of my constituents have raised. We will have to engage on that with the Department of Health and work with the HSE to give parents absolute clarity as to who takes on the primary responsibility of treatment in that situation.

The Deputy spoke to the staffing pressures he is experiencing in Louth and Meath, and that is a huge issue. We have set up the CDNTs across the country, but too many of them are understaffed. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I, working with the HSE, will bring forward a roadmap on progressing disability services. That will, among other things, seek to tackle the issue of retention and recruitment of staff, which is where the biggest vulnerability is right now. Where we do not have staff, we have backlogs in terms of not only the assessment but also the delivery of those much-needed therapies.

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