Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will deal with them as quickly as possible. I thank members for asking me to appear before the committee. I am pleased to be here with the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly. I thank Deputy Carey for his questions. He is right that the budget for mental health services has significantly increased year on year. In fairness, there is a recognition across the political divide that this needs to happen in good economic times and in bad. We have all been committed to increasing the budget and, therefore, the budget this year stands at a non-capital figure of €910.6 million compared with €853.1 million in 2017, €826 million a year earlier and €791 million the year before that, right back to €711 million in 2012. Even during difficult years we continued to increase the budget, but the Deputy is right in saying it needs to increase further. That is why I have already co-signed a letter with the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, which was sent to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I believe a copy was shared with members of this committee and, if not, I can make sure it is, as well as with Mental Health Reform, whose representatives I know are following these proceedings. The letter commits to increasing the budget by at least €55 million net next year to fulfil commitments we have given in the programme for Government and in the confidence and supply agreement; commitments which everybody here would like to see fulfilled. I agree the budget will have to continue to increase.

The Deputy is right in what he said about the IT infrastructure. That issue is not specific to mental health services but I can see how it is a challenge. In the capital plan, the Government has funded the roll-out of our full e-health strategy. I admit this is one of the areas in which we are really lagging behind and we will develop infrastructures similar to those being recommended by the Oireachtas committee. The provision of basic desktop technology is now under way as part of the IT improvement plan for mental health services. E-rostering will be in place within this year. However, the implementation of the integrated mental health information system will have to be part of the e-health record roll-out, on which work is under way.

Regarding Dr. Barry's contribution to the committee on the issue of talk therapy, I agree with the Deputy and I am sure we would all agree it is very important that we direct the appropriate level of support based on the acuity. Therefore, we do not need to have a model - the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, is passionate about this - that is purely centred on the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, we also need to examine other interventions. That is why, in fairness to the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, and others, we have seen the roll-out of the assistant psychologist post - 114 of them - last week and the announcement of ten advanced nurse practitioners, along with the 22 additional psychologists, basically to try to make sure that less complex cases can be dealt with through that setting, thus trying to create additional capacity in CAMHS for more acute issues.

Deputy Carey raised the important issue of recruitment. Whether I am here today or before the Joint Committee on Health, which Deputy Harty chairs, we know there are ongoing recruitment and particularly retention challenges regarding the health service. I was disappointed that some of the exchanges today at the Joint Committee on Health seemed to prejudge the outcome of the Public Service Pay Commission process. In terms of nurses' pay, doctors' pay or other people's pay in the public sector, we should allow the Public Service Pay Commission do its work rather than predetermining the outcome on a political basis. We asked the Public Service Pay Commission to set that up because we recognise there is both a recruitment and a retention difficulty in our health service and I thought that was recognised across the political divide. As part of that process we will be led by the Public Service Pay Commission in terms of its suggestions regarding how we can improve recruitment and retention. I tried to cover those question within the set time.