Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

-----and made a charge. I am thinking about those people and nurses who are working the night shift in Cherry Orchard tonight and looking after young people who are very sick with anorexia nervosa or some other eating disorder, or in Merlin Park in Galway or Eist Linn in Cork. I have visited each and every one of those places. For the Senator to come in and say that there are no eating disorder supports for people and young people in this country is factually incorrect and I would ask her to withdraw her comment because it is not true. There are 100 clinicians working on eating disorder teams across the country and there are nine consultant psychiatrists working. I monitor the CAMHS beds that are available every week. Every Monday morning, I get a report from the mental health unit of the Department of Health that tells me how many beds are and are not available. We have capacity where we need it to be at the moment. There is always an occasion where somebody might be waiting for a bed but every Tuesday of every week, representatives of the four regions come together and hold a meeting where they discuss the caseload for eating disorders, and if a bed is required for a child, then a bed is found. We also use private capacity, if we have to.

I want to put on the record of the Seanad - it is important for me to say this - that since the clinical programme was introduced in 2018 for eating disorders for under-18s, we have not had to send one child outside of this jurisdiction for treatment. So I ask the Senator to temper her language in relation to what is being provided. She can speak to one particular case. I cannot. I have to speak in the round, but if the Senator wishes to bring that case to my attention, then I will see what I can do to support that person.