Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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722. To ask the Minister for Health the increased staffing investment he plans to make to address the waiting list crisis in primary care child and adolescent psychology services in CHO8; and when he intends a recruitment drive for same to begin. [36501/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Primary Care Psychology is a large provider of psychological services at primary care and community level in Ireland. It provides a range of services of varying intensity, encompassing education, prevention, early intervention, and a range of treatments. It also plays a key role in signposting and escalation to secondary and tertiary services, both within psychology and across other disciplines.

The HSE reports that 10,143 referrals have been received by the Primary Care Psychology service nationally this year to the end of June, an increase of 8.7% on the 9,329 referrals received by the service in the same period last year.

I recognise the central role that Primary Care therapy services play in offering the opportunity for early and cost-effective interventions for children and young people. I also acknowledge that the increasing waiting lists for the Primary Care services, and particularly those waiting for a long time to access services, is a source of real concern for clients and their families.

To this end, a programme of work is currently underway between the Department and the HSE to address access to Primary Care therapy services and to develop a standardised infrastructure and protocols to support systematic responses to Primary Care waiting lists. This programmatic approach is aimed at ensuring consistency at a national level to waiting list management in Primary Care, to improve access to services regardless of location, as well as a greater understanding of the scale of demand, the drivers of demand and to allow for improved planning, interventions, investment considerations, enhanced productivity, and the most efficient use of capacity.

The national waiting list initiative in Primary Care Child Psychology Services, which targets those under the age of 18 years waiting over 52 weeks to access the service, removed 3,507 clients from the waitlist in 2022, and 3,521 clients in 2023.

Continued Waiting List Action Plan funding of €5m this year is targeting removals of 3,088 clients from the waitlist. This funding has proven very effective with the removals year to date (YTD) to end August having already exceeded the target for the year of 3,088 removals, with 3,237 clients having been removed to date.

Discussions in relation to the estimates process and Budget 2025 are ongoing, and any final decisions regarding funding allocations will be based on Governmental priorities, and in the context of my Department’s overall financial envelope for 2025.