Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On a personal level, I congratulate the Minister of State on her appointment as Chief Whip. I welcome that the issue of mental health will have a seat at the Cabinet table but, to be honest, I do not have any confidence that things will improve. The past five years are evidence of that.

In 2020, since the Minister of State took over the role, there has been an 81% increase in the number of young people who are waiting for a first-time appointment with CAMHS. She cited an increase in referrals to CAMHS, but it has to be asked why. Why are more children being referred to CAMHS? It is because they are not getting the primary care mental health services they need. For example, at this very moment, 18,000 children are waiting for primary care psychology services. They are languishing on a waiting list. These are the children who will need the more acute CAMHS services. That is one of the reasons more children are going into CAMHS. There were 72 beds for CAMHS inpatients when the Minister of State was appointed. Only 51 of these are operational at the moment. When she was appointed five years ago, there were only three public beds for adults with eating disorders in the State. Guess what? Five years later, there are still only three adult eating disorder beds open for the public. This is simply not good enough. As the Minister of State knows, mental health is one of the most fatal health disorders we have. It is not getting the care it needs.

I read the programme for Government. As was stated, there is less mention of mental health in this programme for Government than in the previous one. The Government did commit to one thing; the regulation of CAMHS. Deputy Clarke, our new spokesperson on mental health, and I will help the Minister of State out on this one. As she knows, we introduced legislation in the last Dáil term. It passed Second Stage. The Government tabled a time-bound amendment to it and it was kicked down the road. We will reintroduce that legislation. The Government basically passed it so we will look for its support to let it proceed through the Houses. It was passed in the previous Dáil term. A time-bound amendment was placed on it, but the Government actually passed that legislation. We will bring it back in.

As the outgoing spokesperson on mental health, I thank all the stakeholders I engaged with over the past number of years. They gave me invaluable help. I acknowledge Ray Burke from Pieta House, who is in the Gallery. I also thank the parents who got in touch with me over the past number of years. They trusted me with some of the heartbreaking stories they had to face. Only today, I received a response from the HSE regarding a young eight-year-old boy called Seán. Seán's mam gave me permission to raise his case. I submitted a representation to the HSE in May of last year. The response I received today, nine months later, was unacceptable. Seán was aged only eight when he was referred for primary care psychology in 2022. Three years later, the psychology services are unable to give Seán an appointment. That is simply not good enough. There is no treatment for a young boy who was referred in 2022, and is now aged eight, for mental health treatment. This is not good enough. I will send the Minister of State a note on Seán. Hopefully, she can intervene.

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