Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her passion. Development of a high-quality CAMHS service nationally, in line with Sharing the Vision, the HSE service plan and other related initiatives, is a priority for me and the Government. This year, €137 million will be spent on CAMHS and €80 million will be spent on organisations such as Jigsaw, MyMind, SpunOut, Pieta and others, to support people with mental health challenges in the community. The money being spent applies equally to County Clare. The actions I outlined are based on consistent investment in services and the intention to improve them. We must be fair to the teams working in mid-west community healthcare. It was the consultant psychiatrist who brought those 140 children lost to follow-up to the attention of the Mental Health Commission when it did its review. It had lost several staff - consultant psychiatrists - at that time and it was they who brought it to the attention of the Mental Health Commission. In fairness to them, they were very aware and have dealt with that issue since. I am trying to build confidence in the 75 teams that work in the country. There is no doubt that there are issues in relation to what the Deputy referred to - location, premises and space - but we are dealing with those. Mid-west community healthcare is advancing a capital plan for east Clare in Inisgile in Parteen to facilitate clients where it would be more suitable for service users from that side of the country. I have just finished holding a series of round-table meetings on CAMHS and how we can support the 21,000 children the best we can. As I said, 225,000 appointments were issued last year to children. I compliment all the staff, who work so hard in this area.

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