Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is fair to say the area of mental health has been an area of our health services which has not received sufficient attention. This Government, however, has decided to give the issues of mental health a very high priority and has given specific responsibility to the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, to address those issues. She is making very significant progress in improving the mental health services within our health system.

A special allocation of €35 million for mental health was announced in budget 2012. That was used primarily to further strengthen community mental health teams in both adult and child mental health services. Some 414 mental health posts were approved as part of budget 2012 and, as of 30 April this year, 383 posts have been filled, are under offer or are awaiting clearance. In addition, she has also dedicated funds to, in particular, advance suicide prevention initiatives and she has been working on that issue. She is taking the lead in committing to implement the recommendations of Reach Out, which is a national strategy for action on suicide prevention.

Right across the whole mental health area, a very significant amount of progress has been made by the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch. She is continuing, together with the Minister, Deputy Reilly, to work on the development of our mental health services, to give them the priority they deserve and to address the continuing challenges which we all acknowledge exist in the mental health area.

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