Children on Cork's northside waiting more than six years to be seen by a psychologist, new data shows

There were 7,090 children waiting for psychology treatment across the four Cork areas, with the longest wait time in the North Lee area of 325 weeks, about six years and three months

Cork East Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide: 'A child waiting more than six years for a primary care psychology service in Cork is an extraordinary failure of early intervention.' Picture: Gareth Chaney

Children on the northside of Cork City are waiting more than six years to be seen by a primary care psychologist, new data has shown.

The HSE’s primary care services provide treatment in areas including psychology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy, for children whose needs are considered mild to moderate.

These services are supposed to provide early intervention before difficulties become more entrenched or require more intensive support.

New data, provided to Cork East Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide, shows there were 7,090 children waiting for psychology treatment across the four Cork areas.

In the North Lee region of Cork, the longest wait time is 325 weeks, about six years and three months.

There are also wait times of four years and nine months in Cork South Lee, and four years and five months in both North and West Cork.

There were 4,949 children awaiting a first-time occupational therapy assessment across Cork, including 1,890 who had been waiting more than a year.

The longest wait was again seen in North Lee, 210 weeks, which is just over four years, while people were waiting three years, four months in North Cork, two years six months in South Lee and two years, five months in West Cork.

There were 1,013 children waiting for physiotherapy assessment across Cork, with 243 waiting more than a year.

People were waiting just over three years in North Lee, just under three years in South Lee, two years, two months in North Cork and one year three months in West Cork.

There were also 2,076 children awaiting an initial speech and language therapy assessment across Cork, and again North Lee topped the longest waiting list, with at least one child waiting 160 weeks, just over three years.

Meanwhile, in Cork South Lee and Cork West, no children were waiting longer than eight months.

Mr Quaide said: “A child waiting more than six years for a primary care psychology service in Cork is an extraordinary failure of early intervention.

“These services are supposed to address difficulties early, before they become more entrenched and have a greater impact on a child's development and wellbeing.

“Waiting four, five or six years turns that principle completely on its head.” 

He added the scale of the waiting list, with thousands waiting to be seen, is also stark, saying: “These are not delays that can be dealt with through small adjustments around the edges.

“We need a comprehensive HSE recruitment campaign, with clear population-based staffing targets across these services.” 

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A HSE spokesperson told Mr Quaide: “The HSE is committed to delivering efficient high-quality services to all eligible service users.

“In 2025, there were over 1.3 million patients seen by HSE primary care services.”

The spokesperson said that its primary care access and integration was focused on improving access to care in order to reduce waiting times for patients. This includes monitoring the waiting list on an on-going basis in the context of available resources.”