Máire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also pay tribute to the staff working at the coalface. They have the solutions, as was clear in the case of the closure of the day programme at Linn Dara when they were ignored. Around 80% of A Vision for Change has not been implemented. This is especially glaring in the delivery of child and adolescent mental health services. We are spending €300,000 per week or €3.2 million per annum on agency staff in nursing and psychiatry. I acknowledge the extra undergraduate nursing places that have been introduced but, as nurses told me last week, no one with sufficient experience is available to mentor these undergraduates. While we fill the vacancies with graduates, the experienced staff who would normally mentor them have left the health service, leaving young and inexperienced staff running wards and clinics. The 700 vacancies in the service is a matter of concern.

Will the Minister of State revert to me with a timeline and process for filling the vacant psychologist post in the Cherry Orchard service? There are many children on the waiting list who will still be waiting in six months. Let us try to fast-track this. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Future of Mental Health Care would like to know when the day programme will reopen. Perhaps the Minister of State can engage with the HSE on the Cherry Orchard campus.