Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2024-06-12
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Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Dublin Central

The Taoiseach is right that the Minister met the families. That happened in October. It is now June, and there has been no progress from their perspective. They are very disappointed.
Every day that these children are on waiting lists or are denied services is damaging in the here and now and to their future prospects. With the greatest of respect, for the Taoiseach to tell me that a waiting list of 3,583 is an improvement on a previous scenario is no comfort at all. That is a deeply unacceptable situation.
I raised with the Taoiseach the issue of staffing and the embargo. He seemed to dismiss the staffing concern but as he knows, the Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland is balloting for strike action such is its concern about the staffing of services. It describes mental health services as being "at a critical tipping point" and has raised specific concerns about child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. The Government has been slow with the legislative piece but I want to come back to the embargo, which needs to be lifted. Recruitment needs to happen unhindered and the CAMHS teams need to be filled if these children are to have any chance of getting the services they need.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-06-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:53:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-06-12