Mental Health Services Dail Éireann — 2026-02-11 ============================================================ Michael Cahill (FF), Kerry At the outset, I acknowledge the tremendous work that the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has carried out over many years now. Absolutely no one knows more about the CAMHS scandal, as it is now known, in Kerry than the Minister of State. I acknowledge that at all times when meetings were requested, etc., she agreed to attend. As a councillor many years ago now, I was invited up by the south Kerry CAMHS families. I was the first in Kerry to be asked to come up to try to help in what was a horrendous ordeal for many individuals and young children, many of whom are now young adults. In that context, I thank the Minister of State. Are all the individuals concerned sorted out with regard to compensation and services? I know many of these families and individuals personally. I have dealt with them for a long time. Lives were ruined, to be honest. They were mis-medicated and misdiagnosed. In the early days, little did we know that there were hundreds involved. We all know about the north Kerry CAMHS situation that followed. It is hugely important that all these people involved, including their families, are receiving the right services today. I sincerely hope a similar type of situation will never again arise. I am not sure what happened to the Topical Issue I submitted but it was two-pronged; it was about north Kerry as well. I sincerely hope it is a similar case in north Kerry and that the individuals and their families are being dealt with. A question that has been asked time and again relates to the north Kerry CAMHS lookback review, which is long overdue. I know it is not in the question but I do not know what happened there. I had included the whole lot in the one question but it must have been divided or whatever. I have been in the houses of these young individuals who were affected and they were like zombies. Many of these people are the brightest you will ever come across, not only in this country but in the world. Their intelligence and everything else is beyond description. I know one young lady who is fluent in the Japanese language, for example. I wish to mention Davin Godfrey, who has been a spokesperson for the CAMHS families in Kerry. He is from Listowel and is going to train to be a lawyer. His story fascinated me. I spent two and a half hours with him, his mum and his grandmother a number of years ago. I remember the day because it was the day the late Senator, Paul Coghlan, was being waked. I went from Killarney to their home in Listowel. He told me he used to go to court cases and sit at the back. In many ways, he more or less educated himself. --- 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/2026-02-11/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-11