Gardaí urge Kerry Camhs victims to come forward as they consider criminal probe

That looked at the care of more than 1,300 children who attended the service. The damning review found clear evidence that 46 children suffered significant harm, and that 227 who were being treated by a junior doctor in the service had been exposed to the risk of significant harm through the doctor's diagnosis and treatment of them.

Gardaí said the report they have received "will now be considered in the context of whether there are grounds to commence a criminal investigation".

"An Garda Síochána is fully aware of the impact this report has had on a number of families within the Kerry Division," said a Garda spokesperson, adding that any parent or guardian of a juvenile who they believe may have suffered harm and wishes to contact gardaí can do so either by emailing KY.CAMHSKerry@garda.ie or by calling to their local Garda station.

The spokesperson also said the Divisional Protective Services Unit in Kerry will engage with each of the families involved "and the specific circumstances of their individual case". 

"An assessment will be carried out by the specialist team within the DPSU to determine whether the complaint reaches the threshold to commence a criminal investigation," they added.

Earlier, the Taoiseach pledged an empathetic and “non-adversarial” mechanism to compensate victims of the scandal.

Micheál Martin said he has had preliminary discussions with the Attorney General in the wake of the damning report and said what happened was wrong and shouldn’t have happened.

“But the report is clear that harm was done to children and that issue has to be addressed,” he said.

The details and specifics of any compensation scheme have yet to be worked out but he said it is the Government’s "intent and objective" to introduce “a non-adversarial mechanism” and to address these issues in a non-adversarial way.

“That could involve a mediated approach or a mediation mechanism but we will look at a range of mechanisms to achieve that in the most efficient, effective, and empathetic manner possible,” he said.

But Maurice O’Connell, whose son Jason, now 14, was overprescribed medication for ADHD in Kerry’s Camhs, was in an industrial school and has been through a redress scheme before.

“It failed in mother and baby homes, it failed in industrial schools,” he said.

“They said the industrial schools redress scheme would be non-adversarial too but they forced you to sign an indemnity agreement.

“So I don’t see this redress scheme working. My concern is that they will cap the redress scheme which would be wrong because we still don’t know what the long-term impact of this overdosing will be on our children.” 

Solicitor Padraig O’Connell, who is acting for a number of people caught up in the scandal, said there must be no cap on damages in any potential redress scheme.

“We will not accept a cap on damages. I would regard a cap on damages as being unconstitutional,” he said.

He said that since the report was published, he has been getting calls from people all over the county about issues in their service areas.

“The reference to South Kerry is a misnomer, it is the entire county,” he said.

“This has had a profound and ongoing impact on children and a profound impact on marital relations. You’re pursuing a claim for the children but also the parents.”

Professor Matthew Sadlier, a consultant psychiatrist and a consultant committee member of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), described what happened in this Camhs service as “the inevitable result of years of inattention and underfunding” of critical health and mental health services.

But Mr Martin insisted it wasn’t a funding issue — that it’s a recruitment and retention issue.

“We are providing the resources. Funding has been allocated but recruitment hasn’t followed that allocation. Some of that is due to the general difficulty in recruiting senior clinicians particularly in the area of psychiatry,” he said.