Hundreds of local children are being left waiting to access mental health services.
New figures show nearly 4,200 patients are on waiting lists around the country for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service.
It provides care for young people with moderate to severe difficulties, including depression and anxiety.
In Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford and South Tipperary there are 346 waiting in total – 140 of them for six months or more.
Child and adolescent psychiatrist, Maeve Doyle, says extra funding is urgently needed in next month’s budget; “We need a doubling of the budget for mental health throughout the country, we need it to go from 6% to 12% similar to Scotland, I think the situation is at crisis point and I suppose I feel like a broken record constantly reiterating it but I believe it’s falling on deaf ears”.
