Ms Ber Grogan:

On the governance piece relating to organisations providing services in the community and voluntary sector, if they in receipt of any State funding, whether from the HSE or the Pobal scheme to support national organisations, - many, though not enough, funding streams are available to the community and voluntary sector - strict reporting guidelines must be adhered to. The Charities Act 2009 must also be adhered to. There is a great deal of oversight and governance of any organisation in receipt of State funding.

MHR distributed the smaller grants. We had a robust process in that regard. Our 81 member organisations include large entities such as the Samaritans, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Barnardos and Pieta House, as well as smaller local organisations such as the Finglas Addiction Support Team. All of these organisations have their own boards and governance structures. That is not a concern.

The community and voluntary sector fills many of the spaces in which the State does not or cannot provide direct services. A report was done by our innovation team called Brave New Connections, which I can send to the Senator later if she likes. It showed how overnight, when the Covid happened, many groups like Jigsaw and My Mind had to switch to an online service delivery model and that the demand for helplines in particular increased dramatically. Both what we have seen and what we have heard from our members is that there is demand for services. Some of their services have had to be redirected to the crisis front-line helplines.

I understand what the Senator says about funding. The recommended amount internationally is that approximately 10% to 12% of the overall health budget should be spent on mental health. Even though the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people, Deputy Butler, managed to secure an additional €72.8 million this year, which is a record amount of investment and which brought us up to an investment of more than €1.2 billion in mental health, it still only equates to 5.1% of the overall health budget. We are far behind when we look at specific mental health budgets.

On the other community supports, some of the things we mentioned that are positive are initiative such as that relating to the community cafés. There have also been pilots of well-being cafés and recovery colleges.

I am conscious that I have been speaking a lot. I will hand over to my colleague, Ms Weedle.