Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Mental health and dealing with mental health issues must be priorities for any society. I absolutely accept the point Deputy Murphy makes in this regard because of the personal cost and the societal cost of mental health issues and the personal suffering. As a Government, we want to support in whatever way we can the development of proper mental health services throughout the country. A Vision for Change is the blueprint on which the Government is working. The funding has been increased substantially over the years, with more than €900 million in 2018 going on mental health services. The issue to which the Deputy refers is new funding for mental health services, and budget 2018 allocates an additional €35 million to develop mental health services in 2018. The figures published are accurate. The Minister for Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health have also committed an additional €55 million in funding for 2019. This means a total of €105 million in additional funding for the implementation of A Vision for Change, which is due for review.

A review is ongoing because the policy is many years old. That total of €105 million in additional funding for the implementation of A Vision for Change over the three-year period 2017 to 2019 and that extra €35 million will help build on the work that was commenced in 2017 on the enhancement of what we need, namely, community care teams for children and adults, later life and mental health care, and intellectual disability services. It will also help to continue our move towards a full 24-7 service, with an initial focus on increasing the provision of services on a seven-day-week basis. The HSE has been asked to prioritise this in 2018. The mental health budget will rise from €711 million in 2012 to over €912 million in 2018. This is an increase of 28% in six years.

If the budget shows our values in terms of putting more money into mental health care, it is very clear that we absolutely recognise the need to increase the budget to have a proper mental health service for all our population throughout the country. The overall increase in 2018 in mental health spending will be just under €60 million when the €35 million for service development is combined with the €24 million in additional funding for pay increases. In finalising the HSE national service plan, there may be some adjustments to these figures to take account of procurement savings or other HSE-wide efficiency initiatives.

The budget will increase and fund more staffing in CAMHS, adult psychiatry and later life psychiatry. In addition, further resources will be provided to programmes for eating disorders, dual diagnosis, mental health of homeless people, perinatal mental health, prison inreach services, mental health and intellectual disabilities services and service users' participation. We can see there are significant increases this year, next year and the following year which meet fully the commitment for that €35 million per year. The total that has been decided will ensure the implementation of A Vision for Change is allowed for in those years. As the Deputy said, that has been given in writing to the HSE by the Minister, who has asked it to make sure it starts the staff recruitment that is necessary to have that development of the services.

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