Disability Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23
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Liam Quaide (SD), Cork East

The single point of access is a sound concept and I fully support it. Young people are, as the Minister of State said, getting passed from one waiting list to the next and that is happening mainly because services have been understaffed for years and they respond to this by becoming more rigid in their gatekeeping of referrals.
There is also an issue of power imbalances that we need to focus on. For instance, it is very difficult for a basic grade speech and language therapist or a basic grade occupational therapist to hold the line with, for instance, a consultant psychiatrist, that CAMHS is a more suitable service for a young person even when, objectively, that is clearly the case.
I am hearing of concerns within services that psychiatry has not fully bought into the single point of access model in each region. I ask the Minister of State again whether there is an ongoing dispute between CAMHS, primary care and CDNTs about which service best fits a young person's needs. Who has the authority to make a final decision in that instance? Is there a named adjudicator? Is there a formal escalation pathway? Is there a timeframe for determination?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-23