Dr. Shari McDaid:

It was posts additional to the ones in place at the time. It shows that some of the investment that has gone into measures that were not originally specified in A Vision for Change. That does not mean they are not positive valuable parts of the mental health system. For example, we support the National Office for Suicide Prevention, but A Vision for Change did not necessarily specify how much should be invested in suicide prevention. Similarly the development of services such as Jigsaw were not specified in A Vision for Change, but we all recognise they are playing an important role that has been worth the investment. The costing in 2012 for how much was needed each year to fulfil A Vision for Change has now changed because we still have many vacant posts that we need to fill.

While I know €98 million is a big number, we need to consider that it does not include investment in primary care mental health services or community and voluntary sector support. It does not include, for instance, investment in counselling in primary care or psychologists as part of primary care centres.