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

What is very clear in the budgetary figures is that the total figure for implementing those developments we have been speaking about under A Vision for Change has been costed at €105 million, and that is now allocated between the budgets going up to 2019. The Minister has made it absolutely clear to the HSE that this is the funding it will have so it can plan, prepare and recruit staff, and start that recruitment in time to make sure the staff are in place in each of the years. Obviously, that has already started for 2017, 2018 and 2019.

That is what it has been estimated it will cost but the Deputy should bear in mind what I have said, which is that this is just part of the funding for mental health services. There is also, for example, the capital investment that is being made in Portrane and there is the over €900 million overall in the Department of Health budget for mental health. There is a very serious commitment to the development of mental health services, although we also need to review A Vision for Change and that review is under way, as I have said. The Minister, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, have written to the Mental Health Reform group confirming an increased allocation for mental health over the three-year period, 2017-19, and they will meet that group, which does such excellent work, in the near future to discuss plans for mental health. There is that key commitment for the budgets up to 2019 to ensure A Vision for Change is implemented.

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