Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this debate. We are raising this issue on foot of the launch of the report, Young Men and Suicide Project, which reveals the suicide rate for young men in Ireland is among the highest in the EU, and a report in The Irish Times on 3 January that the mental health of young people is at risk because of cuts.

As the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, will be aware, this is my fourth time to raise the issue of mental health on a Topical Issues debate in the past eight months. In July 2012, there was a joint motion of all the co-convenors of the Oireachtas mental health group which highlighted the need for the €35 million, which was ring-fenced, to be spent. At that time, the Minister of State stated that she had signed off in recent weeks on the number of posts and where those posts were needed. A further Topical Issues debate raised the issue of the vacant post of director of the National Office for Suicide Prevention for a period of 12 months. At the end of November or in early December last, I again raised the issue of the unspent €35 million in 2012 and asked for a detailed outline of when that funding would be spent, when the personnel that were promised would be put in positions and when the jobs would be taken up. I do not doubt the Minister of State's personal commitment, but there seems to be a delay and a lack of urgency in dealing with this much needed issue.

The report outlines how funding which was meant to be ring-fenced for mental health was siphoned off to shore up the overrun in the HSE budget. This is an extremely important issue. It needs a co-ordinated approach. There is no joined-up thinking. The Government abolished the career guidance posts, a decision which the head of mental health services in the HSE stated caused grave vulnerability among this section of society where we have the highest rate of suicide.

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