Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of mental health facilities, the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and disability services in my local community health organisation area, CHO 8. I have said on numerous occasions that I believe CHO 8 has the least funding per capita for disability services and for CAMHS. I am concerned that every time there is a difficulty with the budget, disability services are like low-hanging fruit and lose out each time. I would like the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health to come in here to discuss this. Part of this discussion could be about the assistant psychologist posts advertised in the past two years, 120 the year before last and again last year, the big recruitment drive, the week-long interview sessions in hotels. Hundreds of young people were interviewed and I do not know if any of those positions have been filled. If they were filled, by their nature, young people move and I do not think they were backfilled. There is a huge flaw in a system that can announce 120 positions for assistant psychologists but not fill all of them or fill some at least. I do not know what they are doing with them.Assistant psychologists are perfectly capable of carrying out assessments under the supervision of a senior psychologist, and reducing waiting lists, and that is what should be done. I ask that the Minister of State come before the House to have this debate with us and give us his impression of what is going on and how we can make it better.