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

The pandemic has taken a toll on many people’s mental health for many different reasons, including isolation, loss of work, loss of income and bereavement. Thankfully, we have not seen any increase in suicide rates during the pandemic period. We worried at the start that this might happen. However, there have been increases in things like calls about domestic violence and referrals to our services. For that reason, Government has put in many additional resources for mental health across the country.

Our mental health budget for this year is €1.1 billion, which is the biggest budget for mental health ever in the State and an increase of €50 million on last year. That demonstrates the Government’s commitment to improving our mental health services. With that in mind, some of us heard Sophie White this morning on the radio talking about the mental illness that has affected her, namely, bipolar affective disorder, and how we need to improve maternity and mental health services for women during and after pregnancy. That is something we have been working on for some time. We have seen the budget for that increased and incorporated in the national maternity strategy. I pay tribute to Sophie White's bravery in speaking about her mental health issues so publicly. Listening to her reminds us that whatever progress we have made is not enough and that we have much more to do.

I am glad the Deputy referred to the Rosalie unit. I launched that project with Paul Reid, as the Deputy said, last year. It was the brainchild of my colleague and friend, the former Minister of State, Jim Daly. I am disturbed to hear that it has not been delivered or brought to fruition. That is news to me. I will follow up on the matter. Perhaps there are good reasons but it was very much part of the vision for mental health services, particularly in the west and in rural Ireland, that they would be provided in this more modern way using technology and remote services and functions. I guarantee the Deputy that I will follow up on that today and see what the problem is. The HSE has a budget of €22 billion this year, which is huge. There must be a reason other than finance for it not going ahead, but I will check up on it.

On the other services in Roscommon, I am not familiar with them and do not want to comment without knowing enough about them. I will let the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Butler, know that the Deputy raised them here and ask her to talk directly to or correspond with him.

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