Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Thank you. I wish to share time with Deputy Catherine Murphy.

Decades of chronic under-resourcing and, probably more important, the lack of integration have hampered the effective development of mental health services. This lack of appropriate services owing in the main to inadequate resources has very much stigmatised people who suffer with a mental illness. The new Government must commit to delivering all aspects of A Vision for Change dating from 2006 because this strategy must continue to be the cornerstone of the mental health plan. If fully implemented, it would not only be responsive to individuals suffering from mental health issues but would also work to proactively equip people with basic tools to positively strengthen awareness of their own mental health and recognise the need to work on their mental well-being and seek help when necessary.

A Vision for Change has been in place for ten years and during that period much lip-service has been paid to it. It is not enough to recommit to its implementation. What we need is to produce an updated national mental health action plan, as called for by Mental Health Reform. We need to do this to improve Ireland's mental health system with a clearly defined implementation plan, allocated resources and, most importantly, a timeframe for each action. It is one thing having a strategy in place, it is another to have an implementation plan that is time-limited and in respect of which we can be sure the provisions of the strategy will see the light of day and be implemented. We need to establish an independent monitoring mechanism to oversee the effective and timely implementation of the action plan.

It is important to look at the stark facts of mental health services. Only 6.4% of the overall health budget goes to mental health care services. That is completely inadequate. If we compare that level of funding to the percentage spent in other countries such as the United Kingdom where the figure is approximately 11%, we can see that we are very far behind in providing an adequate allocation and an adequate quantum of services to meet existing needs.

The outgoing Government had made a commitment to provide an additional €35 million year on year for mental health services, but, unfortunately, there was enormous slippage such that at the end of 2014, 46% of posts were not filled. At the end of 2015, 90% of the posts that had been promised and allocated were not filled. While it is one thing to say we are setting aside a budget allocation that is ring-fenced for mental health services, unless the HSE, driven by the Department of Health, is very clear about the steps that need to be taken to ensure this money will be spent during the year and that the necessary staff will be recruited early in the year, we will face a situation at the end of the year where only a small fraction of the funding has actually been spent on providing new services. It has been a common feature of the management of the health service during the past five years that when savings have failed to be made in particular areas, for example, on the insurance front in bringing in moneys owed by insurance companies and the savings promised in the pharmaceuticals bill, these shortcomings have been shored up by funding allocated for either primary care or mental health services. It is unacceptable, where one part of the health service fails to meet its targets, that money is diverted from much more important areas. There needs to be a very clear commitment to ensure the money allocated will be provided.

We must concentrate on early intervention, in particular, infant mental health and also on the actions that can be taken within schools. We need to end the unreal distinction between mental health services and addiction services because they are two sides of the one coin.

See this speech in context