Listening to Mary, the parent of a child included in the north Kerry CAMHS review, made for harrowing listening on "Morning Ireland" and would have sent a chill down the spine of any parent whose child has moderate to severe mental health difficulties. We await the publication of the report today. We also need to hear what the Government is doing about the wider CAMHS service. As of November, 1,800 children were waiting six months or longer for CAMHS therapy. These are children with moderate to severe difficulties who need therapy now, not in many months. The south west, my area, Dublin north east, the west and the north west have some of the longest waiters. The critical thing I want to communicate to the Minister for mental health is that when I speak to GPs in my area who cover some of the most disadvantaged committees in the country, they tell me they dread and even put off referring children to CAMHS because of the high level of rejection, because of the waiting times and, crucially, because of the urgency of need. They have to find other pathways. Some of those children are under eight years of age and need services. We need to see assurances for those families.

Sentiment score: -0.16