Mental Health Services
Dail Éireann — 2021-05-20
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I assure Deputy Tully my Department is committed to supporting the mental health of the population through the provision of graduates with the key competencies and skills required to be effective in the health workforce and to support a range of clinical teams, including the very important issue she highlights regarding supporting people with eating disorders.
Planning and decision-making for the expansion of those training places is a matter for the Department of Health, the HSE and the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland. My Department, the Higher Education Authority and the higher education institutions stand ready to help. We are committed to supporting the provision of graduates for the health service through undergraduate and postgraduate provision. We are actively engaging, as we speak, with the Department of Health on its health workforce planning needs. If it tells us what it believes is needed into the future and what role we can play in helping that, we stand ready to help. The Deputy has highlighted a very important and sensitive area where we clearly need to train more people. We are working hand in glove with the Department of Health and the HSE to try to assist in that regard.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-05-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:18+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-05-20