Dr. Shari McDaid:

It was intended that there would be some movement in this year's budget towards rebalancing by way of a commitment to the allocation of €35 million for the development of community mental health teams and other related services. That €35 million has not materialised thus far and we do not expect it will materialise this year. The consequence is that mental health services have incurred a deep cut. Even with the €35 million the mental health budget would have incurred a 1% decrease. The €35 million was not additional funding for this year, rather it was a rebalancing within the mental health budget towards the policy of community-based mental health services. It has not been possible to develop that policy this year.

Prior to this, mental health services had already incurred greater disproportionate losses due to the unusual age structure of mental health team staff and the fact that with the opportunity for retirement a disproportionate number of mental health service staff, in particular nurses, have retired. For example, in January and February this year we lost 425 mental health nurses. If the question is whether there needs to be a rebalancing, the answer is "Yes". If the policy set out in A Vision for Change was fulfilled the mental health budget would be 8.25% of the overall health budget. That was that position in 2006. Since 2006, that proportion has decreased further. It is now at about 5%. We are saying that the Government should keep its commitment for this year, namely, it should appoint the staff it promised it would appoint by the end of this year and should keep its promise in respect of the staff to be appointed next year and the €35 million allocation.