Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Sometimes the facts and figures obscure the real human situations that lie behind the health issues and demands that many people have. This is particularly true in the area of mental health. When we are accused of failing to deliver or not addressing the real issues that exist, we have to give the House the facts and figures. I make no apologies for doing that in this case. I will give some examples of the work being done by this Government. I ask the House to acknowledge that the full mental health budget for 2015 will be approximately €792 million. Some of this year's money will be spent on additional resource officers and priority actions. A new suicide prevention strategy was announced by the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, with the Taoiseach yesterday. Some €2.75 million is being allocated for additional resource officers. I emphasise the word "additional" in that context. Additional resources of €2.7 million are being provided for child and adolescent inpatient eating disorder development. This is a real issue that comes up. I am sure Deputies come across queries and issues raised by constituents in this regard. Additional resources of €2.5 million are being provided for child and adolescent teams in day hospital. The great Jigsaw project is being given €2.4 million for the development of additional centres in Cork and Dublin. An allocation of €3 million is being made for additional resources for additional mental health and intellectual disability services. An allocation of €1.1 million is being made this year for additional resources for additional mental health services for homeless people. An additional €700,000 is being provided for additional Traveller mental health services. I ask Deputies to acknowledge that these issues are being addressed by the Department, the Minister and the Government.

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