Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Senator Reilly's Bill. Hopefully it will go through smoothly today. Senators may be aware that the Seanad has been holding public consultations on Thursdays with all stakeholders in the area of child mental health. We hear harrowing stories from parents and also stories that are not so harrowing - but maybe they are glossed over by the HSE. We know the state of the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, in the country and we will be compiling a report. Today's session was dedicated to those parents who did not feel that they could go public. One of the very powerful testimonies was from a parent with a child who was also diagnosed on the autism spectrum. To marry the two is extremely difficult; they are worlds apart. Nobody will touch the case in mental health and no-one will touch it in the autism area because both areas are not integrated and they fall through the cracks. The report will be out in the autumn and hopefully we will be able to discuss it in a lot more detail then. It will be quite revealing and it is informed by the parents on the ground. With their experience it is they we take as the experts and we take their lead.

I wanted to ask Senator Reilly about amendments Nos. 1 and 5.