Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I assure the Deputy that I, as Taoiseach, and the Government are very much aware of the shortcomings in our mental services generally, and in CAMHS. We all have constituency responsibilities and are aware of the cases that come into our offices of those waiting for the appointment to access to psychologist or specialist that they very much need. I am also aware that people are increasingly willing to talk about, identify and deal with mental health. It is a big change in our society in recent years, and a very welcome one. There has been a big increase in demand for mental health services by adults and particularly by children. It is not necessarily solely down to an increase in pathology or mental health problems; it is down to a willingness on the part of people to identify the problems they have, to talk about them and to seek help, which is welcome.

On the progress we are making, funding for mental health services has increased considerably. Since Fianna Fáil left office in 2011, there has been an increase of €200 million in the mental health budget. It has increased from approximately €700 million to €910 million this year, and will increase again next year. That is evidence of much taxpayers' money being invested in our mental health services. In practice that means that we recruited an additional 114 assistant psychologists and 22 staff grade psychologists for primary care child psychology services. Of the 114 assistant psychologists, 111 have been recruited and are now in post and of the 22 staff-grade psychologists, 20 are in post. This is a good example of additional staff being recruited and our success in so doing. It also involves a change in model. Part of the current difficulty is that people are often referred to a specialist. This is a problem across our health service, where a patient goes from a GP to a highly qualified specialist, often somebody with a PhD, when people have different needs at different levels and different referral pathways are needed. The introduction of assistant psychologists is a good step forward in this.

The HSE is also prioritising a reduction in CAMHS waiting lists. The total number of those waiting as of March was 2,691, which includes those waiting any length of time, from a long time to those who may have been waiting only a few weeks. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Jim Daly, in particular, has directed the HSE to introduce a 24-7 telephone helpline, to ensure better out-of-hours services, and is also piloting a telepsychiatry project in Donegal, which allows people to use modern technology to access the support they need.

We are also working with Senator Joan Freeman. I met her in the past couple of weeks to discuss her legislation, the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2016. It will not outlaw children being looked after in adult units but will set out clear legal criteria for when it is permissible. We are keen to work with her in getting that legislation done in the next session.

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