Mental Health Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-09
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

Like every Deputy in this House, I want every child and young person with an intellectual disability to get timely and appropriate mental health supports. I launched the new CAMHS mental health with intellectual disability model of care in 2022, and I am fully committed to the phased roll-out of CAMHS-ID teams to provide nationwide access to dedicated services for young people. Supporting children and young people with intellectual disabilities and mental health conditions requires input from a range of disciplines, as detailed in the model of care. The Deputy will know well that baseline teams comprising core disciplines, including a consultant psychiatrist, a senior psychologist and a clinical nurse specialist, for the service have been established across the country, in recognition of the importance of achieving national coverage quickly.
Under budget 2026, I secured over €11 million to enhance youth mental health services, including funding for 11 new CAMHS-ID posts to establish two new CAMHS mental health with intellectual disability teams and uplift existing services. There are now ten CAMHS-ID baseline teams nationally, out of the 16 recommended by the model of care, with a total of 77.6 funded whole-time equivalent posts.
I was reflecting last week that I have been Minister of State with responsibility for mental health for six years. I was appointed six years ago last week. In that time, I have grown the number of teams for mental health from 220 to 285. That is 65 new teams across the country. We have seen the roll-out of 11 adult teams for ADHD and 16 teams funded for eating disorders. The point I am trying to make is that I am concentrating on every single definition and I am trying to grow them all incrementally. If I was to go through each post and where they are located, it would take up the whole hour here, but I will provide the Deputy with that information afterwards, through my office.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-09