Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In line with the programme for Government, my priority as Minister has been to modernise our mental health services and to prioritise new resources to underpin the implementation of A Vision for Change, something that should have been done when we had lots of money but was not.Despite severe financial pressures, the Government has provided additional ring-fenced mental health funding of €125 million between 2012 and end 2015. The additional €20 million provided for mental health in 2014 must be seen in the context of the overall additional ring-fenced funding for mental health since 2012. This amount was considered appropriate given the challenge in recruiting staff to new posts, which has improved since then. The overall additional ring-fenced funding since 2012 represents a significant investment, facilitating the prioritised development and reconfiguration of community mental health teams for adults, children and adolescents. The funding is also being used to enhance specialist community mental health services for older people with a mental illness and people with an intellectual disability and mental illness, forensic mental health services, enhancement of access to counselling and psychotherapy in primary care and for suicide prevention measures.

The details of the 2016 budget will be finalised with the HSE in the context of approval of its 2016 national service plan, which will also outline the total amount of funding for all services, including mental health services, in 2016. In line with the commitment in the programme for Government, an additional €35 million will be provided in 2016 to accelerate the pace of change to develop a modern, patient-centred and recovery-orientated mental health service. This means that despite serious resource pressures overall, the Government will provide funding of €160 million up to the end of 2016, which has been specifically earmarked for new developments in mental health and suicide prevention. This will enable the HSE to continue to develop and modernise our mental health services in line with the recommendations of A Vision for Change.

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