I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor for the question. It is really distressing. I can only imagine the situation for Logan and his parent with leukaemia and autism. As both of us are from the same community healthcare organisation, CHO, I will speak to the Deputy offline to see whether we can organise something.

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. He spoke to me about it earlier and when I went back to my office I looked up the facility he mentioned, St. Brendan's in Mulranny. It appears to be a fantastic facility for older people to age in their community. I am keenly aware of the challenges that have been faced by the nursing home sector over the last three years. These have been exacerbated since last year by inflationary cost increases. I am delighted the Deputy raised the situation relating to vo…

One of the things I am hoping to get over the line in the budget is the provision of options to support nursing homes given the often costly nature of compliance with HIQA regulations. I fully support HIQA in what it does. At the same time, when HIQA goes into a nursing home there may be issues relating to infection prevention and control, health and safety, fire safety or ligature risks for older people. Addressing those can be very costly for nursing homes. I am looking at that area to see what we can do to suppo…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The question she submitted was to discuss the provision of an injury clinic in Carlow. I do not have the details on primary care centres into Tullow and other areas the Deputy mentioned. When I read her question while preparing to come to the House to discuss the provision of an injury clinic in Carlow, I realised I would also discuss the provision of an injury clinic in Dungarvan, County Waterford. We are all trying to facilitate things in our areas. I thank the Deputy for…

I thank the Deputy for her kind words. I am delighted to put on the record of the Dáil that for the first time ever in history of the State we now have a national office for youth mental health within the HSE. We never had that previously. Dr. Donal Kelly took up the post on Monday of this week. We also have the clinical lead in Dr. Amanda Burke. I hope this will pull all of the strands of the services we have together to try to make things more effective. The Deputy mentioned Hacketstown, Rathvilly, Tullow and Bor…

I heard the Deputy's exchange during Questions on Promised Legislation. I am familiar with the situation having seen it in the media. I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. As he stated, the Before 5 Family Centre at Churchfield in County Cork was so much more than a preschool and a crèche. It was after-school, play therapy and homework clubs and was very important to the parents of the many children who attended it. I am taking this issue on behalf of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disabil…

The Department monitors availability of early learning and childcare on an ongoing basis with a particular focus on responding to the unmet early learning and childcare needs of families. The most recent data on availability shows that, on the whole, supply for early learning and childcare is meeting demand, although there are pockets of undersupply in certain areas and for cohorts of children, particularly babies and toddlers. Cork city and county childcare committees are in a position to support children and fami…

This is appalling behaviour.

The Deputy is quite right. We have an ageing population. More than 775,000 people are aged over 65. We must also recognise that, as indicated by the World Health Organization, we have highest life expectancy in the EU at 82.5 years. Every day of the week, we provide myriad supports to older people, such as home care, day care and meals on wheels. A total of 330 day care centres have reopened, 46 dementia-specific day services have also reopened and 56,000 people receive home care every day. I met with Safeguarding …

I thank the Deputy for the question. The development of a high-quality mid-west CAMHS has been a key priority and focus for mid-west community healthcare in recent years. I cannot agree when the Deputy says CAMHS are in crisis. There might be issues with location, premises and space but there are 21,000 children in the support of CAMHS as I speak. There were 225,000 appointments last year for young people and adolescents in the care of CAMHS. Language is important here. I will address the location, premises and spa…

I thank the Deputy for her passion. Development of a high-quality CAMHS service nationally, in line with Sharing the Vision, the HSE service plan and other related initiatives, is a priority for me and the Government. This year, €137 million will be spent on CAMHS and €80 million will be spent on organisations such as Jigsaw, MyMind, SpunOut, Pieta and others, to support people with mental health challenges in the community. The money being spent applies equally to County Clare. The actions I outlined are based on …

I thank the Deputy for the question. Was it Clogheen that he mentioned?

We have 330 day care centres open all over the country and I was in one in Fethard during the week. I visited it with Councillor Imelda Goldsboro. The Deputy is saying that day care centres are challenged because of the lack of CE workers and we are hearing that everywhere. One of the unintended consequences of having full employment is that there are not as many people available for those schemes. I allocated €5.2 million in recent weeks to the nine community healthcare organisations, CHOs, including €3.5 million …

I thank the Deputy for his question. As he knows, I was at the Private Members' business debate last week, which the Government supported. We will continue to support nursing home providers the length and breadth of the country.

I thank the Deputy for his question. We are hearing more and more about people suffering from long Covid and the effects of Covid. There are many learnings to be had from this. On the Deputy's specific question, I will go back to the Department in the afternoon and get a written response for the Deputy because I do not have that particular detail.

We had a debate during the week on nursing homes. If memory serves me correctly, there are 670 beds currently on a legal footing between the HSE and nursing homes where we have a service level agreement in relation to people accessing those beds. Approximately 500 of the beds are done on a national level and 170 to 180 of the beds are done on a local level. This year the Government will provide €1.5 billion to support 22,700 residents in nursing homes. To date, 120 nursing homes have renegotiated their deal through…

I thank the Deputy for her constant advocacy for enhanced mental health services in Cavan-Monaghan. She is quite right; two SCAN nurses have gone into that area and are making a significant difference. I also want to change the narrative in really pushing youth mental health. It is a key priority of mine. I met with the new HSE CEO recently. Some 2% of the 1 million children in Ireland may need the support of child and adolescent mental health services but the remaining 98% also need supports. Jigsaw does an invalu…

Yes we do.

You are not allowed-----

That is scandalous.