Mental Health Services
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24
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Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin

I thank the Minister of State for her response. There is nothing personal in what I am about to say. Over the past number of years, I have got to know her a little bit and she is a person of the highest integrity. She mentioned an increase from 220 to 285 funded teams throughout the State. At the same time, she says 30 teams of various sizes have been stood up. There is quite a discrepancy in those figures. Maybe that is something we can clarify subsequently. I might write to her about that.
For adults with intellectual disabilities who used to be held in congregated settings, their services have now been moved to the community but I can tell the Minister of State that those services are not available to them. I agree that there are some of what the Minister of State calls starter teams, but they are seriously understaffed. Those consultants tell me it is not a recruitment issue but a refusal on the part of the HSE in those regional areas to fund the posts and go about the business of recruiting the allied health professionals.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24