Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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164. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the development of the pathfinder project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50176/21]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The proposal to establish a cross-governmental youth mental health Pathfinder unit, with participation from the Departments of Health, Education and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, was given Ministerial approval during the previous Government. Establishing the unit is a priority in the current Programme for Government.

The proposal is to formalise a new model for collaborative working within Government and place a Pathfinder unit on a statutory footing, by order under section 12 of the Public Service Management Act 1997. This section has not been used before. Various administrative, budgetary, governance and legal arrangements must be developed and agreed to ensure a robust and workable model for the Pathfinder unit.

The demands on both the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform during the pandemic have presented challenges to progressing this proposal. Nonetheless, my officials have engaged extensively with officials in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and continue to do so, with the objective of agreeing an implementation option that fully addresses the above issues.

Officials from the Department of Health met with officials from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in July to discuss a potential way forward and have subsequently progressed proposals for the unit through engagement with the Office of the Attorney General. Further work is required in this regard.

The implementation of the Pathfinder project is a priority for me, and I will continue to keep this matter under close review in the context of progressing Sharing the Vision, the ten-year national mental health policy.