Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that an extra €35 million has been allocated to the development of mental health services. Up to this year, €90 million extra was allocated overall in the budgets. We had hoped to get €15 million extra because last year we got €20 million when we expected €35 million. This year that sum has been allocated, bringing the total investment in the mental health service to €125 million since 2012 for its development and modernisation in line with the recommendations of the expert report, A Vision for Change. The additional funding for mental health will be directed towards the continuation of the prioritised development and reconfiguration of the general adult teams, including psychiatry of later life and child and adolescent community mental health teams. This will be delivered through further recruitment and investment in agencies and services in order to achieve consistent service provision across all areas.

To put into context the low contribution this country makes toward mental health services, in 1986, 13% of the total health budget was allocated to the mental health services. The lowest point was 2011, when it was just 5.31% of the total allocation. In 2014 this will increase to 6.63%, which is still very low by comparison with our neighbours and European partners. In England and Wales, 12% of the total health budget is allocated to the mental health services and in Scotland the figure is 18%. In most other European countries the allocation is approximately 20%. While ours has improved in the past three years we are coming from a very low base and there is a long way to go.

There is a low budget, starting from a low base, for the National Office of Suicide Prevention. In 2013, the most recent date for statistics, 475 people died by suicide. There were 65 undetermined deaths.

Such deaths are included in the suicide statistics in the UK, in Northern Ireland and in most European countries. There is a view that unidentified suicides are happening. We often hear about single-occupancy vehicular deaths that take place without any skid marks being evident. In such cases, it cannot be conclusively said that it was suicide. We know that coroners are very slow to bring in suicide verdicts in cases of deaths from drowning, etc., if they can avoid doing so. This can really be attributed to the stigma around the whole area of mental health and suicide. It is said that it is done to protect families. The same problem exists in the UK. I recently attended a conference at which it was mentioned that a coroner in London brought in 30 verdicts of accidental hanging. Such decisions show us the difficulty associated with the whole area of statistics.

I would like to put together some of the figures I have mentioned. Approximately 600 people die each year from suicide. In 2011, the allocation to the National Office for Suicide Prevention was €4 million. That figure has been more than doubled, to €8.8 million, since then. It is still at a very low base. A great deal of work needs to be done. The same point applies in the case of mental health services. Some of the additional €35 million that was allocated for such services this year will go the National Office for Suicide Prevention. I urge the Minister and, in particular, the HSE, which manages the budget allocation, to ensure the National Office for Suicide Prevention receives several million in funding to develop the excellent work it is doing. I hope we can improve our mental health services and reduce the rate of suicide and deliberate self-harm.

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