Mental Health Services Seanad Éireann — 2025-10-15 ============================================================ Fiona O'Loughlin (FF), Administrative Panel I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, for being here. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, was keen to be here but she had a prior commitment and I appreciate that the Minister of State is here on her behalf. The issue I raise relates to Jigsaw and my disappointment at the fact that we did not get a Jigsaw service for Newbridge and surrounding areas in the budget announced last week. I will prove the need for it. I will also refer to the fact that, having raised this matter several times in this House and in the Dáil, there was certainly a view that Newbridge was going to be next on the list. Jigsaw provides a really good service. I know it is currently in 12 different areas around Ireland and will be in two more. I am delighted that the young people of Waterford and Clare are going to have the opportunity to have this service but I want to highlight why it is needed in Newbridge and why I am so disappointed that, yet again, we have been left out. I have raised this several times here and have had a number of Commencement matters in relation to it. I also have a report from the children and young people's services committee, CYPSC, and Ms Emma Berney, who does an incredible job as co-ordinator of the CYPSC programme in Kildare. From some of the stats she has put together in her most recent report, we know from the census of 2022 that Kildare has the highest number of young people aged under 24 years in the State, representing 36.6% of our total population. It is understandable that if we have the highest population of young people, we are going to have one of the highest rates of issues with regard to the need for intervention for young people. The number of under-25s in Kildare is actually higher than the total population of each of the following counties: Offaly, Cavan, Sligo, Roscommon, Monaghan, Carlow, Longford and Leitrim. It is evident that the profile of the county's population has not yet peaked and there is going to be an increased demand for young people's services over the next decade. That scale of need is not reflected in current national resource allocation. In 2020, the number of young people admitted to a psychiatric unit or a child or adolescent unit was far higher than the State rate of 14.4%. It was the seventh highest admittance rate in Ireland. The waiting list for CAMHS has doubled over the past number of years. In 2021, there was a total of 24 suicides across all ages. I really do not like bringing negative stats into it but only four areas were higher. It exceeded the national average for all years from 2011. The number of cases of young people treated for cocaine in Kildare increased by 125% between 2019 and 2021. I brought Jigsaw to Newbridge and we looked at possible places. I genuinely felt that, once extra funding was put into this, Newbridge would get that but, sadly, it has not. I am asking the Minister and the Department to assess feasibility and the community need. We all know the Jigsaw hub would not only support mental health but also foster resilience, inclusion and long-term well-being in our county. It has to be a priority going forward. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-10-15/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:14+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-10-15