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

Those one-liners might sound good but the reality is that for every challenge in the system, there are many successes.

11 o’clock

We have a budget of €1.026 billion this year, up from €711 million when the Government took office in 2012. It represents an increase of almost €400 million in the budget. We also have the refresh of A Vision for Change. In the year to date, we have seen a 20% reduction in the number of children waiting for child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. Today we launched a telephone line which will be used to provide an advisory service to direct people to the most appropriate service. It line went live today on World Mental Health Day. The tele-health pilot schemes for psychology and psychiatry services are up and running. We have introduced 134 assistant psychologists and psychiatrists to create a lower level of infrastructure, particularly for young people, which has reduced substantially the reliance on CAMHS as a specialist service. There are many successes in the mental health service. I acknowledge the roles of the HSE and the Department in bringing them about.

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