Mental Health Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16
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Frankie Feighan (FG), Sligo-Leitrim

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue, and for raising the case of Tom, who is nine years of age, and of his mother, Niamh, who has sought assistance and help from the Deputy and many others.
It is a priority for the Minister and Government to ensure that children who need mental health services can access them and access them on time. We recognise the impact that vacancies can have on service delivery. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has made clear that filling approved CAMHS posts must remain a priority across all regional health areas. The Government continues to invest significantly in youth mental health services. Under Budget 2026, the Minister secured an additional 94 posts for youth mental health initiatives covering crisis response, early intervention, specialist services and inpatient care. Over the past three budgets, 2024-26, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has allocated a total of 220 development posts to child and youth mental health services, representing 34% of all new development posts approved during that period. National community CAMHS staffing has continued to increase. Staffing stood at 730 plus seven clinical whole-time-equivalents, WTEs at the end of 2025, and had risen to 749.5 clinical WTEs by June 2026.
There are five Community CAMHS teams within the IHA area of Dublin North City and West which cover the districts of Cabra, Ballymun and Finglas, north inner city and Clontarf, Blanchardstown and Blakestown. These community CAMHS teams are experiencing significant increases in the volume of referrals received to the service coupled with increasing case complexity. For context, the volume of referrals to the five community CAMHS teams serving the integrated health area, IHA, of Dublin North City and West increased by 72% between 2021 and 2026. These five CAMHS teams have recorded 12,258 attended appointments in 2026 so far serving an open caseload of 1,173, including 491 new cases. The overall staffing level for the five CAMHS teams currently stands at 58.7 WTEs. The five CAMHS teams are currently carrying eight unfilled posts, all of which have been approved through the IHA Dublin North City and West employment control committee and are at later stages of further approval.
The HSE has acknowledged that recruitment remains challenging in a highly competitive international market for healthcare professionals, particularly for specialist mental health, psychology, occupational therapy and intellectual disability roles.
In response to workforce challenges, the national office for child and youth mental health, established by the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, published its youth mental health action plan in February 2025. A key commitment in the plan is the development of a comprehensive recruitment and retention strategy for youth mental health services. The Minister of State has engaged directly with regional health areas on the need to increase activity and innovation in youth mental health services and has written to regional executive officers requesting that recruitment to approved CAMHS posts be prioritised. Particular attention has been given to ensuring multidisciplinary teams can recruit across the range of disciplines required to provide comprehensive care.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-16