Child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, across the State are in disarray. We can all agree on that. Every Deputy knows patients and families struggling to access appropriate care and help for themselves and their loved ones and children. We are all aware of the inadequate staffing levels across CAMHS that make it impossible for the services to meet demand.

Approximately 2,560 children and young adults are on the CAMHS waiting list. Those 2,560 are being failed. Almost 300 of them have been waiting for more than a year to be seen. These figures are shocking and unacceptable, and this situation needs to be addressed. Early intervention is crucial, but early interventions in mental health cases are not possible when there are extensive waiting lists and a sheer lack of capacity within the system. CAMHS is not meeting the needs of a large cohort of our children and young adults. The situation has been this way for far too long.

Children and young adults who are desperately in need of care and help and who are reaching out for same are not getting the appropriate support in a timely manner. This is primarily due to the failure to recruit the staff needed to operate CAMHS teams. Some services are operating on barely half the number of staff identified in A Vision for Change. When that policy was launched, it was supposed to be a ten-year plan. It is 12 years since it was launched, though, and it has ceased to have any real meaning because it has been left unimplemented for so long.

In my area of CHO 1, which includes Cavan, Monaghan and the north west, there are ten vacant CAMHS posts and 240 children who are waiting to be seen. This is not acceptable. The Tánaiste knows that, given that the situation in his area is even worse. In CHO 4, which covers Cork and Kerry, 650 young people are on the waiting list, and more than 100 of them have been waiting for longer than a year to be seen and supported in respect of their mental health. It is little wonder that this is the case in Cork and Kerry, given that CHO 4's staffing is at roughly 56% of the recommended level. Approximately 74 CAMHS positions are vacant in Cork and Kerry. This is shocking and confirms the serious lack of capacity in the system.

In the interests of our children, we cannot allow this situation to persist. Where children or young persons need care and help, they cannot be forced to stay on an extended waiting list that puts them and their mental health at serious risk.

Time is up, Deputy, please.

I will finish on this. It is not the first time that I have raised this matter. I raised it during Leaders' Questions with the Taoiseach in November. He stated that he would seek a report on a comparison between resources, staffing and outcomes in CAMHS. He was going to take a personal interest in this. Has that report been compiled? What does it contain? When will it be published? We need to see real action and for this issue to be tackled head on so that CAMHS are properly resourced and meet the needs of children who need serious help.

First of all, this is an area that needs more resources and better results. I do not believe that anyone in this House, and certainly not on this side, would contest that. However, it is an area into which we are putting many more resources. In the budget, an extra €55 million was assigned to mental health services, bringing the overall budget for 2019 to nearly €1 billion. It is not like financial resources are not being increased. That said, it is not just about financial resources.

The HSE is committed to ensuring that all aspects of CAMHS are delivered in a consistent and timely fashion, including improved access to age appropriate units. In 2015, the executive introduced a new standard operating procedure for inpatient and community CAMHS. This has contributed to improving services overall, including a reduction in inappropriate admissions of adolescents to adult units. It is also designed to reduce CAMHS waiting lists, particularly for those waiting longer than a year. Access is based on professional clinical assessment and urgent cases are seen as a priority.

Last year, 114 new assistant psychologists and 20 psychologists were recruited to HSE primary care services to help relieve pressure on the specialist CAMHS. The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, recently approved ten new advanced nurse practitioner posts to improve CAMHS. On the policy front, work is ongoing to complete and refresh A Vision for Change and to produce a draft report, which will be completed shortly. I do not have a draft timeframe, but I will try to get the timetable for the Deputy, as this is not the first time he has raised the issue.

The key objective - it is the only objective, really - is to enhance services overall. There is a recognition that we have had recruitment difficulties in this area. We have provided more funding to address that and recruitment is happening. It needs to continue to happen so that we provide consistent timelines across the country and there are no black spots where young children wait for far too long to get the support and care they need. It is an ongoing process to improve those services by increasing funding and recruitment. Both are happening.

The reality is we are failing these children. I am sure the Tánaiste, like anyone else, knows their parents, perhaps people who are close to him, and the torture that they go through worrying about their children, who have already been assessed as needing mental health supports, about the risk posed to their children's mental health increasing and about there being a bad end to all of it. This is the torture that they tell us about constantly and that they are experiencing.

The problem is that the situation is getting worse. Three hundred people have been waiting longer than a year for their initial assessments and 2,560 are on waiting lists. Of the 72 CAMHS beds, 33 are not operational because of staffing issues. A Vision for Change told us that we should have 100 beds. This is complete and utter chaos.

The Taoiseach told me in November that he would take a personal interest in this matter and would look for a report. Has the report been compiled, will it be published and what will it contain?

I thank the Deputy, but time is up, please.

We hear from the Minister of State at the Department of Health that it is not an issue of resources and that he had called all the CHOs and chief executives together. What is coming out of all that? In the middle of it all, more and more children's mental health and, indeed, lives are being put at risk because of inaction.

Deputy, please. The time is up.

The report is being done and is being finalised. I am told that it will be ready shortly. I will revert to the Deputy with an exact date if I can get one, as it is not an unreasonable request.

Members on this side of the House get the same representations that the Deputies opposite get. In fact, we probably get more because we are in government and there is a responsibility that comes with that.

I doubt it.

I doubt it.

Believe me, we know the stories and frustrations of parents who are trying to get supports and access to professional services for their children.

There is no lack of motivation on this side of the House to improve services. My understanding is recruitment is the biggest challenge in getting the professionals we need, but the recruitment process is well under way. I have given the Deputy some of the figures for improvements, but we have a long way to go yet. That is the why the report, to which he referred, which will be finalised soon will help us to move in the direction we need to take to make sure we accelerate progress in this area.

After eight years in government that is the result.