Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The independent report of the lookback review into child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, in south Kerry was published on 26 January 2022. This examined the files of everyone who received care from south Kerry CAMHS between 1 July 2016 and 19 April 2021, which is a five-year span.

Almost 1,500 children and young people were identified by Maskey as falling within the relevant time periods and requiring further review. No extreme or catastrophic harm occurred in 1,332 cases considered between July 2016 and April 2021. However, 240 young people did not receive the standard of care they should have received from CAMHS. Some 46 children, as the Deputy knows, had significant harm caused to them, and that number is subject to change.

In April 2022, the Government announced a non-adversarial compensation scheme, of which the "non-adverserial" piece is very important. As the Deputy knows, we turned this around in 11 weeks. I felt it was important that it be done quickly due to the level of the situation, the fact that so many children were harmed and the upset and distress it caused. We put in place a scheme to provide full compensation and clinical supports, if required, to those who suffered harm or injury as identified under the Maskey report. This also included, as agreed under the scheme, provision for some upfront payments to meet certain costs initially incurred by those eligible.

To qualify to receive compensation, patients must have suffered harm or injury while attending Kerry CAMHS from 1 July 2016 to 19 April 2021, be identified as being affected by the events outlined in the Maskey report and have been notified by CAMHS. Anyone who does not meet these criteria is free to pursue a case separately with the HSE.

It is important that the Maskey report notes there is no definitive number of people who suffered harm. Therefore, further evidence of levels of harm may be found and therefore the number of people eligible for the scheme may change.

That is the really important piece. In December 2022, the HSE confirmed that a file identification process in north Kerry was complete. The process involved the examination of files where the NCHD1, that is the person we had in south Kerry, was involved in care at any level. The outcome of this review was that an additional 25 children have suffered an adverse outcome. As the incidents involved NCHD1 and as these cases were identified as a continuation of the Maskey investigation into Kerry CAMHS, these additional cases fulfilled the criteria of the compensation scheme.

Separately, an audit of 50 sample files in north Kerry has also taken place to provide assurances around CAMHS in north Kerry. This was a broader random audit of CAMHS beyond the scope of the NCHD1 files originally identified. This file audit was not referenced within the original Maskey report and therefore sits outside the State compensation scheme arising from the Maskey report. The audit highlighted 16 cases of concern including some relating to prescribing practices and some clinical concerns about the professional practice of a clinician. Where concerns were raised by the audit team immediate contact was made with the families. The HSE took immediate action on the result of the files audit by setting up a look-back review similar to what happened in south Kerry to examine the files of anyone currently under the care of north Kerry CAMHS. A senior clinician, supported by a team of CAMHS consultants, has been appointed to lead this review which commenced in June 2023 and will be completed in due course. I will come back then.

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