James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have four quick questions. The first relates to the appointment of 21 non-specialist consultants to psychiatric posts. The President of the High Court has referred to this practice and has been extremely critical of it. He has described this practice of permitting non-specialist doctors to be appointed as consultants in hospitals in mental health services as scandalous. He said the HSE appears to be law unto itself. He wrote, after his judgment, to the Secretary General of the Department of Health, to the State Claims Agency and to HIQA. What is the Minister's official response to the comments of the President of the High Court, as these comments refer to the safety of patients and exposure of the State to liability for any actions of these non-specialists acting as consultants?

My next question is to ask when will the full legislation or even heads of Bill be available with regard to implementation of the 168 recommendations of the expert review group on mental health legislation. We have had three Ministers of State since its publication and to date, only one of those 168 recommendations has been implemented. There have been numerous promises of heads of Bill for this legislation but none have appeared.

The Minister's opening statement referred to 18,800 referrals expected for HSE CAMHS this year, with about 14,300 expected to be seen. In the public service performance report of 2017, however, published in April 2018, it stated that only 10,300 referrals were seen by mental health services, a decrease of 2,082. It would appear that the expectation next year is a 40% increase of CAMHS referrals over last year's figure with an extra 4,000 referrals. We have psychiatrists resigning to beat the band because of the poor service they must give with the lack of support they receive. I am amazed there will be a 40% increase of referrals seen by psychiatrists.

As to the €55 million that is in this year's budget, is that already accounted for in the expenditure side of the budget or is that expected to come out of the fiscal space?