The child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, service in counties Carlow and Kilkenny is in such a crisis that it is commonplace now that nine-year-old kids are being brought to accident and emergency departments for attention only to be sedated with no service follow-up. Last week, on Friday, I notified CAMHS of a particular case and it was unable to respond. In fact, there was no one there to respond so the child ended up in the accident and emergency department. It is also not uncommon for a family to have to wait for five years for an assessment, while private assessments are not being recognised. Will the Taoiseach please intervene to ensure some action is taken to improve the services and to reach out to families who are traumatised by what is happening?

I thank the Deputy for the question. As the Deputy knows, we have CAMHS teams throughout the country, and more than 820 people work in the service. During Covid-19 we saw unprecedented levels of extra referrals, up by 33%, but we have responded by seeing 21% more children than ever before. Last year, for example, 225,000 appointments were issued to young people in CAMHS. The Deputy spoke about a five-year wait for an assessment of need. There is no assessment of need for CAMHS; that wait must relate to disability. With multidisciplinary teams, 95% of all young people are responded to within 72 hours. If the Deputy wishes to give me the details of that particular case, I will see if I can help him out with it.

I will give the Minister of State a list.