Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the urgent need for reform of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, CAMHS. Serious concerns about CAMHS have been repeatedly raised here by me and many other Deputies over the last number of years. A review of CAMHS was conducted by the Mental Health Commission and the Maskey report on CAMHS in Kerry was published recently but we have seen no action to improve the situation. Around 22,000 children who were referred to CAMHS are languishing on waiting lists in what is a failed system.

The Government has been abysmal with regard to fulfilling promises made before the election and in the programme for Government. The latest report from the Children's Rights Alliance assigned an E grade to the Government because of the continuing inhumane practice of admitting children to adult psychiatric units. This is disgraceful. We have had report after report and broken promise after broken promise. The Tánaiste will no doubt refer to recruitment issues and so on but it is simply not good enough. We saw what happened in Kerry and it has to be sorted out.

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