Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Dail Éireann — 2020-12-10 ============================================================ Mary Butler (FF), Waterford There are many challenges in primary care for under 18s. The waiting list is at all-time high of 10,500. It is an issue I have inherited. I met the Minister on this issue recently and I have met the HSE primary care team. The team and the section of the Department that deals with mental health are aware that more than 5,000 under-18s are currently on that waiting list for more than 12 months and we are looking at a targeted intervention to reduce the waiting list next year. A process is being put in place to see where we can get the capacity to so do. The Deputy is correct that there are psychologist vacancies. We are looking at a targeted approach. I will visit Cork in January or February, Covid permitting, to meet the teams there. Significant good work has been done, but we have to do more. --- 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/dail/2020-12-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:55+00:00 Sitting date: 2020-12-10