Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-16
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

We are seeing more real complexity when it comes to our younger people and more and more of them with more than one clinical diagnosis. I am certainly no doctor or expert but from my engagement with many young people and parents this provides a real challenge, and it is one that needs to be met, in terms of how we meet the multiple needs across the multiple diagnoses. I do not know what happened in this situation, and I do not want to comment without knowing all of the details, although I take the Deputy at her word. However, it is clear that the system needs to know the difference between urgent and non-urgent referrals. According to the statistics, which were given to me, and I read out, urgent referrals are responded to within three days. However, what is classified as an urgent referral is an interesting question.
The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, will work with the Deputy in relation to this complex individual case. More broadly, in the run-up to the budget on 6 October, the Government will work closely with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, on the issue of the resourcing CAMHS. I will ask them to take a look at the point the Deputy made in relation to Offaly, and come back to her directly.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:17+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-16