Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

To be clear, since this model of care came in, no child under 18 has had to go abroad for treatment. Since 2019, 14 people have gone abroad for treatment under the auspices of the HSE. Other people may have gone under the cover of private healthcare, but we know that 14 people went abroad for very specialised treatment.

Turning back to the Deputy's initial question, there were two phases to the clinical model of care when it was launched in 2019. I suppose the plan was centred on the fact that the HSE and best practice showed the majority of people with an eating disorder are best served in the community. The emphasis was put on the teams being displaced all over the country. As I said, 14 of the 16 teams are funded, with 11 now operational. We will have the 14 teams up and running by the end of the year. Phase 2 concerns the eating disorder beds for adults. We have 20 for children and this capacity is sufficient. We monitor it weekly. I will speak to this aspect in my next contribution.

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