Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Kenny asked about additional child and adolescent teams. Eight additional child and adolescent teams were put in place and recruitment is under way. We resourced them this year. We also included resources for additional teams for next year in the Book of Estimates published a few weeks ago. The report clearly points out that, between now and 2011, we must increase and resource the teams. Currently, 45 child and adolescent teams are in place. The report states we require an additional 40 child and adolescent mental health teams. We have recruited eight teams this year and must recruit approximately eight teams per year to get this service up to what would be considered adequate by this report. The report accepted that this could not be done in a short period of time. Looking at the recommendations last night, the need to put in additional resources was highlighted, and we did that this year. We took on 400 additional staff to build up mental health services. We need to get up to approximately 1,800 new posts, together with a non-capital investment of €150 million. Again, we have put in a substantial amount of the non-capital programme.

We have dramatically increased the numbers in the past few years but we must further increase them. That is where we must get to in respect of the teams. That is the plan with the HSE. We recruited approximately 400 staff this year, which shows the substantive effort to do that. It will not be easy to recruit staff, as has been pointed out by the professionals. This is why the professionals are under pressure in their work, but they know we are committed to doing it, and we will do so.

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