Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The proposal on telepsychiatry is an excellent idea and any guidance the committee wants to feed into the plan by the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, would be welcomed by all of us.

On the issue of eHealth in general, and this is the Chairman's call, it would be useful to have a written briefing or an oral presentation from the Department's officials who head up eHealth and the chief information officer. A couple of months ago, we did not have enough capital funding allocated to eHealth but the section now has a budget of more than €1 billion in the lifetime of the next ten-year capital plan. What exactly it will do, how it will make a difference to mental health services and how we can ensure it is tailor-made and secures the committee's approval are questions on which I would welcome the committee's input.

The point Deputy Neville makes about the different systems talking to each other or otherwise is fair. A significant amount of the investment will be spent on building one financial system and providing for every patient an individual eHealth record that will allow us to track the patient through the system and empower patients to look after and follow up on their own health to some degree.

Let me bring some clarity to the points raised on budget 2018. An additional €57.5 million was allocated for mental health services. This included pay related costs of €22.5 million and €20 million to further progress new initiatives that were commenced in 2017 as well as an additional €15 million for further new developments in 2018. It was arising from the clarification of the €35 million and the useful engagement we had with Dr. Shari McDaid - I should acknowledge our engagement with Deputy James Browne on this topic - that we gave a commitment in writing that the figure would be €55 million in budget 2019.

On the issue of recruitment and retention, I have made a number of points already. This is not only an issue of recruitment because the bigger challenge in all aspects of the health service is the issue of retention. People are taking up posts for a relatively short period for a variety of reasons. The Public Sector Pay Commission is specifically charged with reviewing pay and recruitment and retention strategies in general. The commission is due to report this month and the Government will be guided by its report. I will be happy to further engage with the committee once we have this guidance.

I agree with Deputy Neville that multi-annual funding is the way to go, not only in this area of the health service but also in other areas. I note the Deputy's support for some of the reforms we have introduced.