Mental Health Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Pa Daly (SF), Kerry

I should mention the name of the boy because I have his family's permission. It is Clancylee Casey, who was known as John. He is the boy who is going to be buried. I appreciate the crisis resolution team the Minister of State has put in place in the solace cafés and that there has been an 18% reduction, but the fact remains a lot of people are slow to go to the emergency department. While what she said is welcome, I ask her to review the situation and have a look at putting a SCAN system in place in Kerry. She is correct that we do not spend enough time talking about it and I am not the first and certainly will not be the last to raise the issue but I do so because of the extent of the crisis. Suicidal ideation, in the words of someone on the community mental health team, "cannot wait". I ask the Minister of State to deal with it as a matter of urgency. There is also what they call a black escalation in the emergency department in UHK, so they are under enough pressure. If a SCAN system were put in place, it would take some pressure away from the ED. It is important for us in the House to say there is help there. People need to have, as Donal Walsh said, the courage to go out and seek it. I encourage anybody to look at the HSE video Donal did, which is only five or six minutes long, or the 19-minute interview he did on Brendan O'Connor's show before he died.
The Minister of State mentioned CAMHS. We are still waiting for the report. There are still people excluded from the scheme. I have been saying for three years it is inevitable there will be a wider review of the system. Over €2 million has been spent on it. I am told it is completed. I do not know what is holding it up. We were told it was imminent last July but it still is not there.
I ask the Minister of State to publish it as soon as possible.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21