Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I cannot speak for the Minister for Finance ahead of the budget. On mental health, I agree with the Deputy that early intervention is the way forward. I have prioritised investment in that area since taking up this job two years ago. There has been an increase of more than €300 million in funding for mental health, bringing the total allocation to more than €1 billion last year. The Deputy specifically referred to the CAMHS waiting list. We introduced 114 assistant psychologists and 20 psychologists to work with young people at primary care level in order to prevent them having to escalate into the very specialist CAMHS service. We are pursuing several other initiatives which I do not have time to detail now. I am happy to discuss the matter with the Deputy in any forum.

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