Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Niamh Smyth for her question. Jigsaw is the national centre for youth mental health. It reduces pressures on specialist child and adolescent mental health services. As we all know, early intervention is of key importance for anyone who has mental health challenges. Jigsaw provides supports for those between the ages of 12 and 25. One thing that I really like about Jigsaw is the fact that a young adult or teenager can refer himself or herself to the services. He or she does not have to be referred by parents or a GP, although those referral pathways are also open.

New services will open in Thurles, County Tipperary, and Bray, County Wicklow, before Christmas of this year. That is very welcome. This will mean Jigsaw will have approximately 65% coverage throughout the country. I will speak to the Deputy about expanding the services in the area she has mentioned. Expansion will be considered in the light of the evidence underpinning specific proposals. I would be happy to meet the Deputy afterwards to discuss this matter. As she said, I spoke with Dr. Joseph Duffy last week. He is doing phenomenal work and I commend the work of Jigsaw, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, when a lot of the organisation's services were moved online because face-to-face interventions could not proceed.

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