Nicole Ryan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise the increasingly urgent issue of access to youth mental health supports in rural villages, particularly in my constituency of Cork North-West. In towns across the constituency like Kanturk, Millstreet and Charleville, parents have been contacting me in despair about the lack of timely access to CAMHS. We are seeing long waiting lists - some for months, if not years - for younger people at a stage when early intervention could be the difference between a crisis and getting the support they need. In rural communities, this is often compounded by a lack of localised supports. Parents are being asked to travel long distances with no certainty of appointments, while community-based services are overstretched or sometimes non-existent in these areas. We cannot keep responding to youth mental health with constant reports and reviews when families are living real-life crises day in, day out.

I call on the Leader to arrange a debate with the Minister with responsibility for mental health to address the specific gaps in CAMHS and ensure services are available to all young people, not just those in the cities, so that they have access to that vital support no matter their postcodes.