Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Chairman made a good attempt. The first thing we must do, and I do not mean this in terms of the Chairman, is stop the debate on mental health funding being a debate on €35 million. The mental health budget for the delivery of mental health services in 2017 is €851.3 million. We have talked about the marginal figure for a large number of years. Last year, €826.6 million was spent on mental health services. That figure is up from €791 million in 2015, up from €766 million in 2014, up from €737 million in 2013 and up from €711 million in 2012. It is one of the few areas, and I fully support this policy, that even during very difficult years for the health budget and all budgets in this country, has consistently risen from €711 million 2012 right up to €851.3 million this year.

The Chairman is correct that there has been a policy of ring-fencing an additional €35 million to spend as part of that budget each and every year. Truthfully, if anyone looked at that figure over the past number of years, in many years it failed to be all spent in one year. That is not due to a lack of effort on anybody's part. As the Chairman has said, it was due to the time lags such as from the moment one decides to employ somebody, the recruitment campaign, the interview process and the taking up of the job so often the €35 million was not spent. In my first budget as Minister for Health, and the first budget for the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, who is responsible for mental health services, we have tried to be much more upfront about this matter. We have increased the mental health budget significantly. We will increase the mental health budget, when one considers the capital spending, by a lot more than €35 million. There is no point pretending that a sum of money will be spent. One must tell people what one intends to do. The total mental health budget of €851.3 million will see the ring-fenced €35 million spent but some of that spending will not occur, in a budgetary sense, until 2018.

Crucially, people in these Houses have talked about implementing the Vision for Change policy. It is so important that we implement Vision for Change. Every political party agrees with that. Dealing with this not just about current spending. There are crucial capital spending parts of the Vision for Change that have been overlooked. If they are not delivered then one cannot implement the programme. In addition to the €35 million, of which €15 million will be spent in 2017, the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, and the Government will expend at least another €50 million on the National Forensic Mental Health Service, which will deliver a new modern mental health facility in Portrane thus replacing the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. The project was granted permission in June 2015 and site preparation works were undertaken by the HSE during 2016. In the budget discussions we got the green light to deliver the project. Phase 1 will provide a new 120-bed hospital along with ten new child and adolescent mental health units and a new ten bed mental health intellectual disability unit. Significant additional capital was provided in budget 2017 to progress the project this year. A preferred bidder for the construction of the new hospital has been identified and the award of the contract process is expected to be completed very shortly. Construction will then commence as soon as possible this year. The new facility will open in 2019. Phase 2 of the project will see the provision for the mental health sector of a regional intensive care rehabilitation unit. It is important that we do these things regionally as well.

If the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, was here today she would make the same point as me that the totality of the mental health budget is over €800 million for this year. There is a lot more than an extra €35 million being spent when people consider the full range of services of which a crucial part is capital. There have been international reports written on how we need to replace the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum and we will do it this year. This is a more upfront and transparent way of telling people how the mental health budget is going to work.