Children in Louth 'deserve better' with 989 waiting on CAMHS appointment

Children in Louth “deserve better”, local Sinn Féin TD, Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú has said, after new figures from the HSE revealed that there are 989 children waiting on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) appointments in HSE Dublin and North East, the HSE area that provides health and social care to North Dublin, Louth, Meath, Monaghan and most areas of Cavan.

The figures, which were released to Sinn Féin spokesperson on Mental Health, Sorca Clarke TD, show how the Dublin-Northeast HSE area has the third highest overall waiting list, with 190 children waiting for more than a year.

Of the 989 on the waiting list in this region, 277 are waiting less than three months, with 201 waiting between 12 and 26 weeks, 196 waiting 26 to 39 weeks and a further 125 waiting for 26 to 52 weeks.

The figures provided relate to the most up to date information available from November 2025. Deputy Ó Murchú said that children in Louth deserve better mental health services and should not have to wait to access them.

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He said: “The Mental Health Commission’s report in 2024 into CAMHS highlighted a number of issues with the service, including children lost to follow up, lack of monitoring of psychiatric medicines, unacceptable waiting times for high risk referrals and many more operational issues.

“We have also seen the unacceptable postcode lottery of care continue to exist with certain counties receiving a lower quality of care.”

Deputy Ó Murchú continued: “Children with a dual diagnosis of mental ill-health and an intellectual disability are falling through the cracks as are neurodiverse children.

“There has been a multidisciplinary treating consultant for Louth-Meath mental health services appointed, but the team is not up and running yet, so this needs to happen as soon as possible.

“Parents, children and stakeholders have been highlighting the crisis in children’s mental health which has gotten worse under this Government.”

The Dundalk TD added that, “the government has to get serious about tackling these waiting lists for vital care for children and young people. There needs to be a proper and sustained recruitment campaign for vacant posts”.