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

I thank Deputy Mattie McGrath for raising this important issue. I am afraid I do not have an up-to-date note in front of me on the particular issues he has raised with regard to Tipperary but I read the coverage at the time of the events he mentioned and I share his revulsion at the fact that basic things such as patient care and hygiene were not attended to properly in that unit, which is relatively new. There is no excuse for treating patients poorly or poor hygiene. These things do not require massive resources; they just require people to do their jobs properly. I am sure the HSE will respond to the Mental Health Commission's report and make sure remedial action is taken and changes made.

The focus in mental health over the past ten or 15 years has been the right one. It is moving away from inpatient services to outpatient and community services and moving away from the traditional model of mental hospitals and psychiatric institutions to care in the community. This is much more appropriate and is the right way to go. The Deputy knows that in Tipperary, for example, a new Jigsaw service is being established to improve the services available in the community to people with mental health issues. There is also increased capacity in primary care, with 114 new assistant psychologists and 20 psychologists recruited by the HSE primary care unit. Most of them are now in place. There is an increased supply of psychiatric nurses, with funding for an additional 130 undergraduates per year. Ten advanced nurse practitioners in CAMHS are in training. The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, has developed a mental health telephone line, which helps to signpost people to the support they need, particularly out of hours. The Deputy is aware the budget for mental health this year will approach €1 billion, the biggest budget for mental health ever, with €55 million set aside for improvements in services alone. While there has been much focus on the national children's hospital, and I know the Deputy is particularly interested in it, we should not lose sight of the fact that three new hospitals are now under construction, one of these being the national forensic mental health campus in Portrane, which will replace the very outdated Victorian facilities in Dundrum.

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