Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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1467. To ask the Minister for Health to establish a special Oireachtas committee on eating disorders to ensure real accountability and that all commitments made under any new model of care are delivered in full; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10583/25]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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It is a key priority for me as Minister for Mental Health to continue to make progress on improving eating disorder services to better meet the needs of people experiencing this condition, including supports for families and friends who are also so affected.

I want to re-assure the Deputy that accountability is at the heart of the process in my drive to improve services in conjunction with my Department, and to ensure that the HSE delivers a quality mental health service for people with eating disorders and the advocates that support them.

I regularly meet the National Clinical Advisor and Group Lead for Mental Health Services, the National Clinical Lead for Eating Disorders, and officials in the Department of Health to monitor the progress of the Clinical Programme and associated enhancements to community and inpatient services for children and adults with eating disorders.

I have also met with, and continue to meet with, people and families with lived experience of eating disorders, to better understand the issue and ensure that the positive changes we are making to services are responding to the needs that have been outlined to me. Departmental officials and HSE senior management, including the HSE CEO, have also met with eating disorder advocates as part of this work.

I recently met with HSE Mental Health Services leadership team to discuss the planned review of the Model of Care for Eating Disorders. The outcomes of this review will inform eating disorder service developments into the future, and I will be ensuring that those with lived experience of eating disorder and eating disorder groups and advocates are supported to engage with this review and have their views heard and acted upon.

Both myself as Minister and the Department are steadfastly committed to working with the HSE to improving access to care, and quality of care, for people with eating disorders. I continue with my officials to engage with the HSE on an ongoing basis on actionable steps, with the objective of delivering real improvements in the quality of care for people with eating disorders.

I expect that we will make significant progress in enhancing eating disorder services for children and adults nationwide in the coming months, as a number of key pieces of work are underway.

The HSE are currently conducting a review of adult bed capacity for specialist eating disorders beds, including a review of data on bed usage in HSE acute hospital, HSE approved centres, private placements and treatment aboard. The HSE will make recommendations for a future plan regarding number and locations of adult eating disorders beds. It is intended that this plan will be provided by the HSE to myself as Minister by the end of June 2025. This is an important step in ensuring that we are meeting the needs of people with eating disorders who require the support of an inpatient service.

Furthermore, under Budget 2025, I secured funding for the expansion and enhancement of the National Clinical Programme for Eating Disorder services, through the addition of two new teams. These will be a CAMHS Eating Disorder team for HSE Midwest, and an adult team for HSE Dublin and Midlands.

As Minister, I look forward to continuing my engagement with the HSE this year in order to make progress on delivering enhanced eating disorders services for all those who require support with this condition.