Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not wish to thank the Minister of State. First, only 50 of the 74 CAMHS inpatient beds are operational. In his reply the Minister of State gave me an education on CAMHS and the services already available, but he did not address the importance of having seven-day services for children, from the peak time of Thursday to Sunday. As for waiting in an emergency department for a CAMHS consultant, they do not exist. Many children leave with their parents before they are assessed having waited for hours and days for a consultant to arrive.Many child patients leave with their parents before they are assessed, having waited hours for a consultant to come. The day hospital at Linn Dara is also still closed. It has been closed for the last eight months and I cannot get a response from the HSE as to the plans for that facility. It is a white elephant. It is lying empty. It was state-of-the-art when it was opened two or three years ago.

The Minister of State's answer does not touch on 7-7 service provision at all. What is available for our children now is just not good enough. We are failing them. We know the difficulties. It was pledged that we would have services seven days out of seven, moving towards 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but nothing is happening and the HSE is not responding to its plans in this area for 2019.