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THERE IS STILL no plan in place to provide funding for eating disorder treatment beds for adults, seven years after the launch of a government plan to improve services.
Ireland currently has just three public beds in the entire country which offer specialist treatment for adults with eating disorders.
A report estimated that Ireland needs 23 more adult in-patient beds for people with eating disorders.
However, there has been a consistent improvement in the number of community treatment centres, with work underway at 14 of 16 so-called ‘hubs’.
The HSE has confirmed there has been steady increase in the number of treatment hubs, with funding for two more of the facilities provided in Budget 2025.
It also revealed, however, that there has still been no funding provided for new in-patient beds for adults.
More than 20 new beds were due to be opened between 2018 and 2023.
“The model of care has estimated the need for an additional 23 adult inpatient beds for adults with eating disorders,” the HSE said in response to a recent parliamentary question from Holly Cairns, the Social Democrats leader.
“This is a significant capital programme that will need phased funding yearly for the coming years.”
The response gave no further information on when funding for the new beds might be provided.
Asked by The Journal when funding will be allocated for the adult beds, the HSE said: “Adults who have an eating disorder diagnosis and require in-patient care can be referred to any of the HSE’s acute inpatient mental health approved centres around the country.”
“One adult Eating Disorder Team also provides care to its catchment area with three specialist eating disorder beds in St Vincent’s University Hospital (in Dublin 4). A review of bed capacity across all mental health facilities – including adult eating disorder beds – has taken place and is under consideration by the HSE.”
The HSE did not say when the results of the review would be published or when a decision would be made.
People impacted by eating disorders who live outside of the catchment area for the three beds in St Vincent’s are normally referred to a general psychiatric unit, where they often do not receive specialised care.
However, Mary Butler, the minister of state for mental health, has previously indicated that she did not see the need for significantly increasing the number of adult eating disorder in-patient beds.
“I don’t think we need more because 90% of all supports [are] being provided for people with an eating disorder are in the community,” she told RTÉ’s Prime Time last year.
She also said that severe cases can be dealt with under the Treatment Abroad Scheme (TAS), which involves paying for seriously ill patients to receive treatment overseas.
However, this approach has been criticised by the likes of Cairns, who pointed out that spending on eating disorder treatment under the TAS has risen from €312,000 in 2018 to €4.5 million in 2023, as more people seek treatment.
Psychiatrists have also said that relying on the TAS often means patients can be severely unwell by the time they finally do receive treatment.
There has been a rise in the number of people seeking treatment for eating disorders in recent years.
For the first time, eating disorders were the main reason for children being admitted to psychiatric hospitals and units in 2023.
The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland recently said the improved outpatient services, with work underway or complete on opening 14 of 16 planned treatment hubs, has had a positive impact.
However, the organisation said that improving inpatient care has been neglected, highlighting the lack of beds available for adult patients
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Catholicism and feminism. 2 rabid ideologies that championing nonsensical ramblings instead of facts and logic. That both love preaching and pushing their warped ideology onto the vulnerable, and they ostracize anyone who doesn’t bend to their will. So yes, you totally can be Catholic and feminist. It just means you are twice as terrible than just being one or the other.
@50 Pence: Feminism wants equality between the sexes. If you that is a warped ideology then you are no better than the church hierarchy. There is nothing to fear from equality. Lashing out like that isn’t going to make feminism go away either my dear.
@Catherine Sims: Modern day feminism wants advantage as far as I can see, not equality. Name one feminist initiative directed at boys in Ireland in the last 40 years? Just last week we had the film board offer 400k to women only. We also had a similar amount offered to female entrepreneurs recently. That’s not a level playing field. That’s about advantage and nothing less.
@Catherine Sims: according to veronica who comments here regularly feminism is not about equality. It is about female empowerment
@Niall Sullivan: Your examples are fairly ridiculous. Grants and such are given in areas to promote female participation in fields long dominated by men. Once there is parity reached these incentives are discontinued. Can you point out ANY initiative aimed solely at girls by men in the last 40 years ??? Any incentives given to women have come on the foot of women campaigning for women. 40 years ago women were still shut away in laundries and their babies sold . The fathers walked away and had no consquences. Women are still playing catch up. It’s as simple as that. Feel free to work on men’s groups. Women’s groups are not a threat to men. Equality is not a threat. Simple as that.
@gjpb: That’s her opinion and you should talk to ” Veronica “about that. I haven’t seen that comment.
@Catherine Sims: Please give me a list of the legal rights which men have that women don’t.
@50 Pence: It goes beyond legal rights and if you had any knowledge of the subject you would know this. Stop putting rubbish as an argument
@Catherine Sims: Do men and women have equal rights or not? Make up your mind, sheesh.
@Catherine Sims: she makes those comments regularly.
Right now men and women have the exact same rights in the jobs they wish to pursue.
Do you think men should be offered incentives to pursue reaching or there should be quotas on the amount of women who enter teaching each year??
@50 Pence: You aren’t informed on any of the issues and are only lashing out with nosense. I’m not debating with you as I would require a bare minimum of knowledge on the subject from the person I am debating with. You are lacking that and frankly I’m not wasting my time on men that feel threatened by campaigns for equality
@gjpb: that’s teaching not reaching!
@Catherine Sims: Wow, you just completely danced around a very simple question. You should be a politician.
@Catherine Sims: If that true and women truly believe it, then why don’t they divide the grants equally? When we know for example that DV effects men and women approximately equally why is the lions share of government grants given only to women’s groups? Please don’t reply that men have to fight for their share, if they did, you and other women would most certainly object to that too.
@50 Pence: In the current argument, women are explicitly excluded from certain occupational roles (eg priest, bishop or cardinal) under canon law. Irish civil law grants exemptions so that the normal redresses available to women for job discrimination are not allowed in these cases.
@Catherine Sims: I’m hearing these arguments all the time, “feminism wants equality”, but when we examine the evidence this just doesn’t stand up. As someone else said grants aren’t shared equally and for years many feminists have made a career out of claiming this ‘inequality’. Our laws ensure discrimination cannot exist on the grounds of someone’s gender and attempts to do this will result in prosecution.
I’ve done a quick google search so you’ll have to forgive the statistics being a few years old, however it reveals some very interesting results. In Ireland 1.2% of women are employed in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, lower then the European average of 4.1% why are there no calls to address this?
Or what about the 9.6% of men employed in Construction compared to 0.7% of women compared to the EU average of 1.5%, again no calls to address this.
What about Education, 3.8% for men and 12% for women, what, no calls to address this imbalance – for men this time?
And what about Human health and social work activities, 5% for men and 22.8% for women but again, no calls to address this major inequality.
For anyone looking at these figures you have to wonder exactly what inequalities do women want addressed, where are they, are they sincere about focussing on all inequalities… or only some very selective ones. It’s always managers, boardrooms, talk of a ‘gender pay gap’ but never specifics, no examples. If they want equality, lead by example.
@Catherine Sims: I don’t any women who were shut away in launderies or had their babies sold, despicable as that was it did not happen to all women as you seem to be implying and fathers are still walking away and not having consequences but women still go down that road when it suits them and refuse to name said fathers in order to get welfare. We almost have shaken the scourge of catholic ways and are now standing by and allowing Islam getting ready to take over and if women were mistreated under Rome well till ye get a taste of what Mecca has in store for ye, not alone will you have to sign up you will get worse for not belonging.
@Catherine Sims: A Woman, a Jewish woman was the mother of a Man called Jesus, who was born in Israel two thousand years ago. He founded ‘Christianity ‘, only for a ‘Woman’ ( Mary ) he couldn’t have done that, and ‘Women’ have contributed all the men to the ‘Priesthood’, ‘Monkhood’, Vaticanhood, etc,etc, ( Balance,!!)
@Catherine Sims: What are grants not given for males on nursing, hair dressing and beauty therapy. A
@Catherine Sims: feminism is so equal that mascelism doesn’t exist
@Niall Sullivan: you just don’t get it do you?
@50 Pence: I feel really sorry for the women in your life.
@Mairtín: Typical warped religious delusions and inane, out of touch comparisons. Your examples are about as balanced and fair as a race between a pedophile priest and a 6 year old boy with a broken foot.
@Boyne Sharky: What is DV?
@Catherine Sims: “Grants and such are given in areas to promote female participation in fields long dominated by men”
So if these grants were given out equally, as you claim, then there would also be similar grants to promote male particpation in fields long dominated by women.
If you look at the figures supplied by Jed I. Knight you see Health and Education are dominated by women so we can expect to see similar grants here to promote male participation in these areas, except… not a bean.
Looking at these figures anyone would have to come to the conclusion that women don’t want equality, they certainly don’t want to share grants equally. They want to cherry pick the high paying, high profile, managerial roles they want ‘equality’ in while ignoring all others, including those that men have never been equal in.
They want government grants funded by the taxpayer in order to achieve their illusion of equality but aren’t prepared to share a cent of them when men point out their own inequalities. This is not seeking equality in any form but rather demanding favouritism, elitism and using feminism as a weapon to do it.
@50 Pence: as a man I can agree wholeheartedly with Cathrine, you clearly have not even a basic understanding of the issue and you are just embarrassing yourself, although I doubt you even realise it. Ignorance truly must be bliss. Men have nothing to fear from female equality and should support it 100%
Or you could be neither and save yourself the stress
@tae: honestly why bother . I prefer to concentrate on things such as real life and surviving than religious claptrap . I just hope Ireland d has woken up completely from it for once and for all . Believe what ya want to believe but all organised religion suck .
As for feminism . Why can’t people just be people equal according to the law with equal rights and pay and dignity that’s all why need an ” ism” for everything?
Sure look it if all feminism is wanting equality so what’s wrong with that .
But people loose a hold of themselves
on ” ism” and then it gets ridiculous.
If someone offend you say something back . A quick and witty answer ,get the person to stop on their tracks .
Why make a big deal out of everything. Nah can’t be ars*d .
Do your thing . Just don’t act silly
@WilhelminaMCallaghan: It’s other people who call women seeking basic simple equality “feminist” more often than women call themselves that! Privilege always has to be wrenched from those who wish to hold onto it unfairly. Would the men commenting here have complained about the efforts to ensure more equal numbers of Catholics in state jobs back in the days, when it was clear that there had been discrimination – they also had and “equal right” in the law to get the best jobs, but mysteriously they were not getting them.
My question to people who oppose “feminism” is this: do you object to equality or do you not? If you do not, what is your problem? That is all that feminism is about – equal treatment. Anybody would think that women were getting paid MORE than men for the same work – the fact is that they are getting paid LESS. You could join us by protesting about the unfairness of that if you wished.
Not being a feminist would mean believing women are lesser than men. In today’s world, I would hope few people would go with that. And it would be nice if we lived in a world where people had equal pay, rights and dignity without needing to campaign for them, but we are not there yet.
As the two ideologies seem to be completely at odds with each the author has two options.
1. Stop being a feminist.
2. Stop being a catholic.
If you are betting on the two ideologies somehow merging into one, I am afraid you are backing a losing horse.
@Brian McDonnell: Indeed – the Catholic Church is a completely male-led and controlled organisation – is it not a bit like a black person wanting to be an inferior member of an organisation that did not allow black people to have any control or power in the organisation, but did allow them to ‘serve’. Or a Catholic wanting to be a member of the Orange Order, where they were allowed be a member but barred from any officer roles or real control? Is it not saying: I am inferior, and a door mat, here – I will lie down and you can walk on me. What kind of a self-respecting person would do that?
Is it possible to be a Catholic and a feminist,yes when the Pope is a female
@Brian O Reilly: Of course it’s possible. Feminism and hypocrisy often go hand in hand,
@Niall Sullivan: Show me on the male dolly where the mean woman hurt you?
If you have faith in a god, don’t direct it towards a man made institution. Differentiate between the two & stop over thinking. If you can’t reconcile yourself as a feminist and part of the catholic church, then don’t. Simple…what a load of narcissistic nonsense.
@Louise: It’s actually not that simple as all. There are people who very much want to be part of their church and they want their church to be inclusive. From a theological standpoint there are very good reasons to back female ordination. Your attitude would only leave the money and power in the hands of men . Men who don’t understand female issues in any way .
@Catherine Sims: Might be time to leave and form your own religion, one that respects women, I cannot think of any that does that anywhere.
A feminist that believes in gender equality…that’s a pretty rare find…
It’s all bolloxology anyway!
@Paul Radburn: not respectful.
@Blarneykite: no. Respect for both will get change. Why Catholic Church anyway. What about ISLAM and JEWS
Short answer: No.
You can’t be a feminist if you are a supporter of an organisation that refuses to see women as equals.
I suppose the one essential difference between them is that there is a concept of forgiveness in Catholicism whereas feminists are probably the most unforgiving grouping on the planet. One slip of the tongue and a yawning chasm of ignominy awaits you.
Let’s be honest here, most people would rather fall foul of Rome than the feminist hierarchy as the chances of survival would be far far greater.
@Emmet Dillane: The essential difference is that women are real, “god” isn’t.
@DaisyChainsaw: The God part is debatable. It has never been proven true or false by science actually.
@Milton Ryan: Same can be said of Santa and the Tooth Fairy.
@DaisyChainsaw: Nice try Daisy. But that is a false equivalence. Neither science nor religion has ever seriously tried to study the question of whether Santa or the Tooth Fairy exist.
However, science and religion do compete on some fundamental questions. Why are we here? How did we get here? Where did we come from?
Science has had the upper hand in providing knowledge to us for over 300 years but it still fails to really answer the above fundamental questions sufficiently to prove that there is no God.
I’ll give a brief example. Science is based on the idea that natural laws exist. That cause and effect exist. That if you rely on these things you can get all the answers to life that you need. So belief and knowledge are only grounded in evidence.
For many years, science studied the central question of where we came from? What was the start of everything? And then they found what is now considered to be their answer. The Big Bang.
But this gave scientists a major problem. At the moment of the Big Bang, all the natural laws of science fall apart. Suddenly you have a point in time so chaotic and destructive that you will probably never be able to find out the cause of it. It was like what the theologians said all along. That the universe just started in an instant due to some supernatural occurrence.
RIchard Jastrow, a scientist, summed up the feeling really well:
“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”
Now, just because you can’t prove (as of yet) that God is false doesn’t mean that God must be true. It only means that whatever position you take, belief or non-belief, requires a leap of faith.
Most scientists usually put themselves in one of 3 categories: agnostic non-believer, agnostic, or agnostic believer.
@Milton Ryan: Santa is based of a real person, Jesus probably was too, The christian god is just a copy of other gods that came before him..
@Rob Cahill: None of that negates any of what I said.
Science has never proven whether a God, of any religion, exists or not.
Feminism is the movement for equality so yes there is room. As a practicing catholic I feel there is room.
@Free comment ratings: Not as it stands currently no. Sadly there isn’t .
@Catherine Sims: I feel that there is.
@Free comment ratings: can you expand on what you base those beliefs on?? Having studied theology I have to say that I don’t believe what you say is true. Not without a seismic shift. Most Catholic feminists have felt they had no option but to leave the church.
@Catherine Sims: If they leave are there true feminist? Feminists don’t just give up they stay as they would believe it’s there right.
@Free comment ratings: They are of course true feminists and leaving doesn’t make them any less of a feminists. They go where they have value . That’s deflecting from my question anyway and nothing more . What do you base your belief on???
@Catherine Sims: I’m not deflecting, there is room I see it everyday we are open to all. We are Evolving as always. So I guess I’m basing it on my experiences but then again I haven’t studied theology.
@Free comment ratings: well the church is basing all its arguments against equality on theological arguments . That is where the debate lies. Currently there is no wiggle room on female equality. Women don’t feel valued in the church and so leave rather than support the status quo there. Campaigns for change then usually have to come from outside the church or feminists will move to more accepting Christian faiths.
@Free comment ratings: at its heart feminism is about equality. How can someone who identifies as feminist stay with an organisation that has consistently tried to deny equality to various members of society?
@Maggie Elizabeth Walsh: Unfortunately Maggie,that is not the case anymore.
If you actually survey women across the developed world, the vast majority will say they believe in women’s equality. However, only a very small percentage will believe in feminism.
By the way, these surveys have already been done…
Feminism is a very good thing and is still needed in modern 1st world country society. It’s just a shame that so many people have become disenfranchised with it because of the rabid, lunatic feminists that are the most vocal and see feminism as a way to gain an advantage over men. However the only people they are hurting is genuine women who believe in equality. Having said that I think that people have to be more accommodating and not allow the radical feminists to colour their view of the movement as a whole.
If the Church is so anti-woman as the author insists, why are the Catholic parish churches filled with women and so few men?
Secondly, if someone does not agree with the teachings of the Catholic Church, they are free to start another one, just as Luther, and so many others have, which would have things just the way they want them.
@Patrick J Reynolds: eve
@Patrick J Reynolds: yes there are women. You’re right of course theere are. No ones saying to the differ. But just because there’s plenty of women in church doesn’t mean there isn’t sexism which there is. And not just a good bit but an overwhelming amount. If you say there isn’t you’re in a minority. Ask anyone whether they think the church is sexist towards women?
Also on your second point for the most part children are compelled to adopt Catholicism and can’t get out until later. And even if they can get out it doesn’t mean they can’t make a social observation that the church are a sexist baby raping corrupt homophobic aggressive self righteous aggressive lying cult.
@Patrick J Reynolds: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” (I Corinthians 14:34-35)
Or
“Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (I Timothy 2:11-14)
@Patrick J Reynolds: I doubt there is a church left in the country that’s filled at all, Never mind with women.
Most catholic feminists even up ” post Christian ” and Post Catholic . Nice term isn’t it? It’s a better way of saying that if you are female and seeking equality to men then there is no place for you in the Catholic Church for you. The issues go beyond ordination though and are far more basic in nature. There are of course huge theological issues too. The historical treatment of women by the church is hard to get past and the present treatment is still harsh on many levels. There are some theologian with the church who see no issue at all with female priests ( from a theological standpoint ) and that same Dec unions do reflect the devine intention same as opposite sex unions. These are radical theologians either . Many have worked within the vacation for many years. There are well reason arguments from a theological standpoint to allow female ordination. It just seems the male hierarchy aren’t willing to let go of even a little of its power. Until they do you can’t be a feminist and a Catholic.
Actually yes Edith Stein, St Teresa Benedica of the Cross. a discalced Carmelite, feminist, academic, philosopher and convert from Judaism. Executed in Auscwiz for her original faith. On the wider plane no catholic will be bothered wity the vehement anti catholic vitriol peddled in this publication.
That’s like saying that black men could have had equal rights with white men in apartheid South Africa if they didn’t mind being tormented and put to death first. I’m fairly sure that any women who would like a role in the Catholic Church of today had living women in mind. It’s not very inspiring to advocate martyrdom as the only possible option.
Someone we never heard of who works for some obscure organisation we never heard of gets a column on the journal to spout some vacuous Mumbo Jumbo. That’s a first.
Catholicism..feminism..why bother with either of them? I’m an egalitarian…it seems the most logical philosophy.
Will the feminazi accept men can be feminists?
@Michael Power: when a man uses a term like feminazi he is not a feminist. There are though thankfully plenty male feminists out there.
The church is a evil corrupt selfish sexist homophobic violent lying deceitful predatory organisation targeting the vulnerable.
Everything else is a made up ghost story.
Keep sending our kids to confirmation communion and baptism. Let’s get em young lads
@Chris Finn: make no mistake about it, if you go to church you are literally supporting a cult that continuously tries to conceal child abuse.
Believe it or not, there genuinely are some people in Ireland who still actually attend mass on Sundays.
@Chris Finn: That’s completely their choice at the end of the day…And believe it or not, there is actually quite a lot of good people who are practicing Christian too…
@Chris Finn: Very few though.. and most do it out of habit.
Feimineach fimíneach!
@TheJournalAsGaeilge: glic
Timothy 2:12, simples!
@John Walsh: http://www.tldm.org/Directives/directives.htm ???
@John Walsh: Here is the one you want? http://www.tldm.org/Directives/d34.htm
No problem being both. A feminist may not like male control but if they work at reasonable change then it can help
If feminism was still about gender equality then no it’s not possible to be a Catholic or any kind of Christian & believe in equality of opportunity within Christianity because Christian scripture, the basis of Christianity, places women on an inferior status to men. Its the same and even worse in Islam. Women in the Catholic church wanting it to give them the equal staus is a bit like a Jew joining the NAZI party in the hope of making it less anti semitic. Feminists in the Catholic church should just break away & set up their own superstitious cult.
@AR Devine:
They already do have their superstitious cult. It is called feminism. You know that cult that believes every man in the world is part of a conspiracy to keep them second class citizens. The same cult that believes that every individual rape of a woman benefits the whole class of men. Even the raped woman’s brothers, sons, fathers,etc.
That cult.
Well that was absolute rubbish
@smithers: Not rubbish but irrelevant, like the Catholic Church.
Just be a feminist and don’t waste time worrying what people who believe in fairies think or say.
@smithers: why don’t you write something instead of criticising?
@John Madden: He can’t because that would require knowledge of the subject . Lashing out is the action of the ignorant. Always has been.
@John Madden: what’s wrong with criticising? When organisations are above criticism they often commit and get away with terrible deeds.
@Bob Lynch: Nothing wrong with informed criticism. Populist bashing on the other hand is just silly
@Catherine Sims: which is what your doing to my comment
@Bob Lynch: he was criticising the article, not the organisation..
@John Madden: and your criticising my comment. Mad thing fam
Ffs give it a rest
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan will be leading a eucharist at 10am on Sunday 6th of August 2017 at St Andrew’s Community Centre, 468 South Circular Road, Rialto, Dublin 8.
“While 98.2% of women surveyed were baptised Catholics, I found that less than half had baptised their own children or intended to baptise future children. Only 27% affirmatively identified as Catholic now while the remaining half didn’t identify as Catholic or replied they were unsure if they identified as Catholic.”
I think this has more to do with people not being gullible idiots than how women are treated by the religion to be fair.
Great article!!
Great article!
It is interesting for this woman to be talking in the usual boring way about woman and how their so badly treated by the Catholic Church. I would love now and again to hear them speak of how women are treated in Saudi Arabia .It would be nice to hear them speak with the same passion about the brutality of the laws against women in this country .
No.
No, but Irish people have long since been happy picking and choosing which parts of the Catholic ethos they wish to believe in.
12 Irish priests have called for an open discussion on the need for equality of Women in all aspects of Church life, including Ministry. We Are Church Ireland supports their call. https://www.facebook.com/WeAreChurchIreland/
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