Fully updated waiting list and recruitment figures must be provided by the HSE ahead of a joint meeting of the Oireachtas Disability Matters and Health Committees to address the crisis in\u00a0primary care services for young people, according to Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide.<\/p>\n
Deputy Quaide, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on mental health\u00a0and\u00a0disability, said:<\/p>\n
“There are now over 28,000 children waiting to see a primary care psychologist, with more than 15,000 waiting over a year.<\/p>\n
“Figures I recently obtained revealed the full scale of the crisis in primary care services. The HSE initially declined to provide specific data on the longest wait times, beyond stating some were waiting more than 52 weeks for an appointment. I persisted with follow up Parliamentary Questions until I obtained a breakdown of waiting lists in excess of several years throughout the country and across disciplines.<\/p>\n
“The most shocking figure\u00a0was a wait time of 13.5 years, as of August, for psychology services in Dublin North-West. While the HSE says this has since reduced to 10 years, it is hardly cause for celebration.<\/p>\n
“The crisis in primary care services for young people has been\u00a0developing\u00a0in plain sight of clinicians and families for many years. It has been drastically worsened by the HSE recruitment embargo in 2023\/2024 and similar restrictions since through another recruitment policy, the Pay and Numbers Strategy.<\/p>\n
“This waiting list crisis is affecting all disciplines and all areas of the country, despite Simon Harris’s contention in mid-2024 that the issue was particular to psychology services in Cork\/Kerry.<\/p>\n
“Following\u00a0my request, the Disability Matters and Health Committees have agreed to conduct a joint meeting to examine this crisis in-depth. It is vital that both\u00a0committees\u00a0are provided with up to date and clear waiting list and recruitment figures by the HSE ahead of this meeting.<\/p>\n
“With thousands of families and children impacted,\u00a0and the HSE continuing to obfuscate on recruitment figures in response to Parliamentary Questions,\u00a0this level of level of scrutiny is urgent.”<\/p>\n
November 10, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fully updated waiting list and recruitment figures must be provided by the HSE ahead of a joint meeting of the Oireachtas Disability Matters and Health Committees to address the crisis in\u00a0primary care services for young people, according to Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide. Deputy Quaide, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on mental health\u00a0and\u00a0disability, said: “There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[540,499,11,652,653,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-disability","category-health","category-liam-quaide","category-mental-health","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n