Ms Ber Grogan:

I thank Senator for his question. He will be aware that sometimes funding is announced on budget day, but when the details are drilled down into it will become clear that some of the funding may have been announced earlier in the year for a different initiative, etc. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic also meant that other funding was provided, such as the €1.1 million for the community and voluntary sector. The €10 million was announced in February 2021 and we submitted some parliamentary questions asking what it had been spent on. We recently received a reply from the Minister of State to say that her "officials are working with their counterparts in the HSE to identify and develop proposals". Therefore, those proposals are still being examined.

The Minister of State’s reply continued by stating that "it is envisaged that initiatives will be starting in Quarter 4 2021". That is the only information we have. We would like to see that €10 million provided as part of Covid-19 initiatives progressed and spent separately from whatever other measures may be introduced in budget 2022. We are calling for the provision of an additional €85 million in the budget. Drilling down into our pre-budget submission, though, it can be seen that there is a call for the provision of €10 million in the context of mental health services in respect of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and then another €120 million for the Department of Social Protection, but we did not want to scare the members too much.