Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this really important issue. Primary care psychology and the CAMHS teams are two separate services, as the Deputy knows and understands. The majority of the children on the waiting list are for the primary care psychology team. They are not for the CAMHS team. We are trying to reduce the number of children waiting for CAMHS. I visited over 21 teams in the past six months to see what we could do to support the teams on the ground. There are a lot of culture issues and different challenges across different teams. No two teams are the same. In relation to the Deputy's question, there will be a waiting list initiative this year for primary care psychology to try to remove as many children as possible from that list. Believe it or not, it does not technically come under the mental health budget. I am putting a complete focus on it because it has a knock-on effect on the CAMHS teams.

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