Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for that. I have a couple of other questions. I compliment the Minister of State on her green ribbon. September is green ribbon month for mental health and a number of events are planned. Perhaps the Minister of State could mention one or two of them. I am aware of an event on exclusion next week.

I have a number of questions which might be more appropriate to put to the HSE in our next session. The role of assistant psychiatrist was developed to address the waiting lists. The role sits within the CHO system on the community healthcare side. I ask the HSE to provide an update on how many of these positions have been filled and what impact this is having on reducing the backlog. Assistant psychiatrists were meant to take on some of the work of senior psychiatrists in order to help us to reduce the waiting lists.

I am also interested in e-health, which has been provided with a huge amount of funding. Funding is being dedicated to e-health because the HSE has seen how important it is. The cyberattack on the HSE absolutely decimated the service and had a more negative effect than Covid-19, which is absolutely shocking. I am aware that the HSE is still recovering from the impact of that attack. Deputy Hourigan referred earlier to the importance of electronic medical records and I agree that they are crucial. What percentage of the e-health budget has been allocated to mental health ICT projects? What is planned for the year ahead and what impact will that have on reducing our waiting lists?

I wish to compliment the Department on the West Be Well initiative which has been rolled out in a number of counties in the west. Our libraries are doing a lot of work, under the auspices of the local authorities, to provide information around mental health and so on which must be acknowledged. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, is responsible for the Healthy Ireland campaign and healthy counties. It is so important that we provide information in an accessible way, particularly in rural areas. I am particularly concerned with Roscommon and east Galway in which there are very rural areas that only have a mobile library service. We must consider how we are getting information out to people.

The Minister of State mentioned two new 50-bed units and it is wonderful to hear about those investments in Waterford and Kilkenny. There is also the development in Portrane, County Dublin, of the national forensic mental health hospital, which is in a community setting.

In safer times, it would be great if this committee could visit that facility to see what is being provided. It is a state-of-the-art facility, similar to those to which the Minister referred in Waterford and Kilkenny. Similar is needed in other regions across the country and perhaps this is the template we will be working from in other areas. In the past, St. Brigid's psychiatric unit in Ballinasloe provided acute services and addiction services in my area but nothing has replaced that unit. I understand the move towards community-based provision of care but we do need something in place of that unit. That being said, I know a lot of work is being done through the CHO.

The Minister of State said the statistics on the percentage of funding for mental health are difficult and are somewhat skewed by the fact that there is a higher level of funding for health. Perhaps statistics on theper capitaspending on mental health would be useful to look at. We have not had a census of population recently but indications are that the percentage of our population over 65 has increased. A lot more is being spent on projects in the Minister of State's area of responsibility, particularly with regard to dementia. An issue of real concern, particularly in rural areas, is how we support carers and families. Measuring on a per capitabasis from year to year might enable us to get a better understanding of our mental health spending.