Minister to publish report into children’s mental health care in north Kerry within two weeks

Minister of state Mary Butler will also visit Kerry in the next 10 days

Minister of state Mary Butler: 'I will publish it as soon as possible, which I’m saying is within the next two weeks.' File photo: Sam Boal/Collins Photos

A review of children’s mental health care in north Kerry will be published within two weeks and shared with families, having started nearly three years ago.

Minister of state Mary Butler confirmed the deadline, with the HSE Southwest having previously apologised for delays in finalising the long-awaited review.

Some 300 files were reviewed, led by Dr Colette Halpin, starting from June 2023 in the north Kerry Camhs (child and adolescent mental health services). 

This followed “red flags” raised in the wake of the Maskey Report into the neighbouring south Kerry Camhs in 2022. The Maskey Report found that care for 240 children and teenagers in South Kerry did not meet standards.

At the Oireachtas Health Committee, Ms Butler said: "My department received the final report over the weekend, and I have read the report and discussed with the (health ) minister.

“I will publish it as soon as possible, which I’m saying is within the next two weeks.” Families previously attended open disclosure meetings, received apologies, and were offered clinical supports.

It will be brought to Cabinet, and sent by registered post to the families. “I will visit the Kerry region in the next 10 days for a couple of days as well,” Ms Butler said. She hopes to set up a non-adversarial compensation scheme for these families, as was done in south Kerry.

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Out of 240 children found by Sean Maskey to have been exposed to risk or suffered harm, she said 231 have been through this scheme. She described it as “a lesson to us all” in how to support patients.

Ms Butler was answering questions from Fianna Fáil TD for Kerry, Michael Cahill. He called for "a public apology" for all children and families affected. Ms Butler also praised Camhs teams in Cork, Kerry, and Limerick for waiting list actions.

In Limerick, she noted reductions of 89% in the over-12-month waiting lists, and 59% for those waiting under 12 months. In the Southwest, she said its share of the national waiting list has been reduced from 28% to 24%.

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill also attended the committee, the main focus of which was the revised estimates for health 2026.

Children’s hospital

Questions were raised about the new children’s hospital.

The deadline for the completion by main contractor Bam has been pushed back over a dozen times, and costs have ballooned from a planned €650m to an expected €2.2bn.

Asked by committee chairman Padraig Rice whether she was confident an April deadline would be met, the health minister said: "That's up to Bam."

She added: “If the hospital is handed over at the end of April, and if everything goes well with the commissioning period, and we really have worked hard to try to make that as tight as possible, then that would be my expectation (that patients would be in the hospital by December)."

"With the current projects that we are moving forward, we would not have a similar contractual structure, and I think we will see that in respect of the National Maternity Hospital and other major projects that we will be advancing."

Asked if the contract was "fundamentally flawed", she said: "We would not take that step again.”