Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ward. I agree that it will be a catalyst. I want to make several points. I asked for all of these audits and reviews to be put in place 12 months ago, as a result of the Maskey report in Kerry. The main concern I had after the report was for the 240 children in Kerry at risk and the 48 who had significant harm caused to them. There were many challenges but the overprescribing did not come through in the report. This has to be looked at. It is something we were worried about.

There are 73 CAMHS team and a 74th team will be put in place in the Wexford area very shortly. The last one we put in place was in Donegal. I met all of the stakeholders last week in Leinster House. Dr. Amir Niazi, of whom Deputy Ward is aware and who answers all of the parliamentary questions, has put great effort into this. I look forward to the final outcome. The seven audits and reviews are under way. We must be aware that they place a large amount of pressure on the teams. My focus and the focus of the Deputy is that the child will be looked after first. There are a lot of pressures on the teams to respond to all of these reviews and audits.

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