Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We are discussing the mental health budget, which is due to increase by €15 million, or less than 2%, next year. Ten years ago, A Vision for Change set targets for mental health spending as part of a ten-year plan. The truth is that A Vision for Change could and should have been fully implemented by now. We should be moving on to other issues at this stage, such as the need to provide resilience training to young people through schools across the country. Ten years on, the State is still far short of achieving the targets set in A Vision for Change. If that is to change, over €35 million per annum, or more than double the increase allocated in last month's budget, will be necessary over the next five years. Clearly, this is a very poor performance on the part of the Government. I do not doubt that many people, including those facing mental health crises and their family members, have been badly let down.

I want to focus on the deeply cynical game that is being played by Fianna Fáil. I can explain what I mean by that by referring to a statement made by Fianna Fáil's spokesperson on mental health, Deputy Browne, on 6 August last. He said that "the Confidence and Supply Agreement between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael commits to the full implementation of the Vision for Change policy, and this is a key priority for us in Budget 2017". The key words in that statement are "key priority for us". As a minority Government, the current Government could not survive for 24 hours without the support of Fianna Fáil. If mental health funding was truly a "key priority", it would have been delivered and one of two things would have happened. Either €177 million would have been allocated in the budget for the full implementation of A Vision for Change, ten years on, or - at the very minimum - a one-fifth share of €35.4 million would have been allocated for the first year of a five-year programme aimed at meeting the targets set in A Vision for Change. Neither the first option nor the second option was taken. Instead, a mere €15 million was allocated by way of an increase. As I have already said, this was less than half of the minimum figure that would have been in line with reaching the targets. Did the Government fall? No, it did not. Was the budget shot down? It was not shot down because Fianna Fáil did not make mental health a key priority in the budget. It broke the promise that had been made on 6 August and on many other occasions before budget day. Governments are well known for breaking promises. When Fianna Fáil is in government, it is pretty good at it.

This is a new one on me. Breaking promises to the most vulnerable people in society from the Opposition benches is some achievement and is not one to be proud of. What is happening here tonight? We have a motion which is designed to make Fianna Fáil look like the champions of mental health funding. It is designed to provide headlines, such as the one it was given on The Irish Timeswebsite a few hours ago: "Government willing to put mental health 'on the backburner', says Fianna Fáil". It is certainly true. The Government has put mental health on the backburner. I hope people do not forget that Fianna Fáil put mental health on the backburner too. That is what tonight is about, in large measure. It is about covering Fianna Fáil's tracks in what has been a shameful episode, given the way this has played out in the past weeks and months.

For the people who need improved mental health services and for their friends, families and supporters who are looking at this charade in this House, a discussion needs to start now about what steps can be taken, difficult as they are, to increase pressure on the Government and on Fianna Fáil. I think people are striving to do their best in difficult circumstances. We need to have a discussion about finding some way to increase pressure on the Government and on Fianna Fáil. I am talking about people-power pressure where huge numbers of people in this country find a way to make their voice heard and to light a fire underneath these parties, which have let people down once again.

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