Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy. He is right that eating orders are complex and individual. They are the mental health illness with the highest mortality rate. Every case is different. I acknowledge the advocacy groups, including Bodywhys and Cared Ireland. They provide enormous support to people with eating disorders and I acknowledge that.

There are currently only three adult eating disorder beds in St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin. As of yesterday, nobody was waiting for a bed, which is unusual. There is normally a waiting list but there was no waiting list yesterday. We are trying to grow the number of beds organically around the country. There are 64 approved centres around the country, including departments of psychiatry. The HSE is considering where we can provide the correct wraparound supports, such as those provided by dieticians, clinicians, social workers and whomever else. We want to know if we can grow beds organically because we believe we have the capacity to do so.

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