Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will take this opportunity to set out the funding allocations for mental health and older people, both of which have received substantial increases in budget 2022 and build on last year's unprecedented levels of investment. The total allocation for mental health services in 2022 is €1.149 billion. This is another record budget for mental health. It delivers an additional €47 million for next year, comprising €24 million for new developments, €13 million for existing levels of service and €10 million in once-off funding for mental health initiatives in response to Covid-19.

The new development funding covers investment in clinical programmes, out-of-hours supports, community mental health teams, including child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and other important priorities. Some €1.15 million will be allocated next year to continue the roll-out of specialist eating disorder teams in community healthcare organisations, CHOs, 1, 3, 5 and 6 as part of the national clinical programme on eating disorders. Funding will also be provided to progress the development of other mental health clinical programmes on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, self-harm, dual diagnosis and early intervention in psychosis. Developments on the perinatal mental health model of care will continue into next year. New mental health services for older people will be developed in line with the model of care for specialist mental health services for older people and will be piloted in 2022. Out-of-hours supports will continue to be developed, with investment of more than €1.4 million in crisis resolution teams. In addition, two new CAMHS telehubs will be established.

Enhancing the capacity of community mental health teams, with a particular emphasis on CAMHS, is being prioritised with a total allocation of €6 million. Investment is also being made in recovery-focused supports, including peer supports, employment supports and recovery colleges. The €10 million in once-off funding for mental health initiatives, announced earlier this year, has been finalised, with planning work commencing this quarter. These initiatives are focused on enhancing signposting and access to existing mental health services and supports, initiatives for children, young people and students, and I refer these to the previous speaker, and additional psychosocial responses, recognising that people will require varying levels of support. For the purpose of clarification, a further €10 million was announced yesterday by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy McGrath, as a once-off funding measure to provide additional investment in mental health services in 2021, with a particular emphasis on community- and voluntary-based supports.

This year I cleared a historical deficit in mental health funding, which had grown to €53 million by the end of 2020. The successful reduction of this deficit to zero is critical to ensuring our mental health services can operate effectively and efficiently from a stable funding base and enable enhanced development into the future.

The total budget allocation for older persons' services in 2022 is €2.33 billion. This includes €30 million for new developments and builds on last year's unprecedented investment by the Government. The Covid-19 pandemic posed huge challenges across society, especially for people living in nursing homes. The report of the Covid-19 nursing homes expert panel, published in August 2020, has given us an evidence-informed basis to learn from the pandemic. To continue the substantial progress being made on its implementation, I am delighted to announce that €17.6 million is being allocated to address the recommendations of the expert panel. These include, among other measures, €8.2 million to support the establishment and development of nine permanent multidisciplinary community support teams for nursing homes - one in each CHO; €4.5 million to progress the safe staffing framework in nine pilot sites to determine the staffing and skill mix required to meet the needs of residents in nursing homes; €1.4 million to ensure specialist infection prevention and control support and safeguarding supports are integral to the work of the community support teams; and €1.1 million for the establishment of a national hospice-friendly residential care settings programme and a once-off programme in 2022 to provide enhanced psychological supports to nursing home residents, their families and staff.

Central to the 2022 budget is the further investment of €7.3 million in dementia services, in areas such memory assessment and support services, memory technology resource rooms and the national intellectual disability memory service.

It will also allow for new initiatives such as the dementia registry so that we can build a clearer picture and evidence base on dementia in Ireland. We will also increase the ring-fencing of new home support hours for people with dementia from 5% in 2021 to 11% in 2022. Taken together, this will represent €15 million of investment dedicated to dementia in 2022 to supplement the €12.9 million of additional funding in 2021. I have long been an advocate for the development of services for people with dementia and their families. I am pleased to be able to continue the focused investment for these services and supports.

Overall, budget 2022 will continue the focus on enhancing community-based services to enable older people to continue living in their own homes with dignity and independence for as long as possible. The €150 million funding secured in 2021 for 5 million additional hours of home support has been maintained for 2022. Additional investment will be allocated for nine co-ordinators throughout the country under the integrated care programme for older people's falls and fracture initiative and to operationalise the Nursing Homes Support Scheme (Amendment) Act 2021, which enhances protections for family farms and businesses under fair deal. Deputies will remember this was passed through the Dáil and Seanad just before the summer recess and it will be implemented next week, on 20 October.

Overall, 2022 will bring the further enhancement of services and supports for older persons and mental health, building on the unprecedented levels of funding in 2021. I commend the budget to the House.

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