Almost 1,800 young Cork people waiting more than a year for psychology service

Almost 1,800 young people in the South Lee area of Cork are waiting over a year to be seen by the primary care psychology service, almost three quarters of the total waiting list, the health minister has said.

Primary care psychology provides mental health support for mild to moderate emotional, behavioural, and developmental difficulties. Young people are referred there if there condition is not severe enough for Camhs.

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said 2,445 children and young people under the age of 18 are waiting to access primary care psychology in the south Lee area, with 1,792 or 73% of them waiting longer than 52 weeks.

“That is an aberration and should not be the case. It simply has to be improved,” she said.

Recruitment was cited as an issue with the January 2025 figures, with a HSE spokesperson saying at the time: “Regrettably the area has had ongoing and significant recruitment challenges whereby the vacancy rate has been high from 2018.”

Initiatives

Ms Carroll MacNeill said several initiatives have been deployed by HSE South West to try to improve access to the services, including recent recruitment. She said in 2025, 30% more patients were seen in the region compared to 2024. However, the figures have increased — at the end of January 2025, there were 1,487 young people waiting more than a year in the region.

The information was provided to Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, who said there were gaps in recruitment, meaning young people “are not being seen quickly enough and their condition is therefore escalating.

“The other concern I have is with people ageing out, people who reach 18 without having been seen,” Mr Ó Laoghaire said. “They are the back of the queue for adult primary care psychology.”

Ms Carroll MacNeill said government was trying to find different ways to expand the workforce, such as creating more assistant posts and retaining graduate trainees.