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

I find the Deputy's negative narrative so disappointing. He called it abysmal. There are 77.6 clinicians working with the most vulnerable children in the country. Is that abysmal? The recommendation is that we would have 16 teams. Since 2023, we have put ten teams in place. They are not fully staffed according to the full definition, but we all know that with a child with a mental health intellectual disability, who is non-verbal or might be falling between the cracks, from a children's disability network team to primary care psychology, the consultant psychiatrist will make the initial diagnosis. We have made sure we have a consultant psychiatrist in place in all our starter teams. I would much prefer to see two starter teams, one in Waterford and one in Kilkenny, with three or four staff, than just one team in, for example, Cork. I want to make sure that the postcode lottery is addressed.
I will continue to roll out teams on an incremental basis, but the Deputy is completely wrong when he says that it is not a staffing issue. It certainly is a staffing issue in some areas of the country.

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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