Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government has provided significant additional investment to enhance all aspects of our mental health care, including that of children and young people. This is in line with our mental health policy, Sharing the Vision, and our suicide reduction strategy, Connecting for Life. Good progress continues to be made on the implementation of both policies.

Over the lifetime of the Government, funding for mental health has increased by 44%. Year-on-year funding for mental health services has increased by €143.5 million, from €1.338 billion in budget 2024 to nearly €1.5 billion in budget 2025, with a strong focus on youth mental health. This is a 10.7% annual increase, a record funding level and an increase for the fifth year in a row. The significant funding of €16 million for new developments will bring about realistic and continued improvement overall, including for youth mental health and the opening of more beds at the Central Mental Hospital in Portrane. I emphasise that the €16 million is for new developments, not additional funding, which itself amounts to €143.5 million.

The child and adolescent mental health service, CAMHS, receives approximately €150 million in dedicated funding annually. In addition, approximately €110 million is being provided to community-based mental health organisations and NGOs this year, with a significant proportion dedicated to supporting young people. A priority for the Government is to improve access to CAMHS and reduce waiting lists, including better links with primary care and disability services and greater use of e-mental health responses.

The new national office for child and youth mental health in the HSE is a significant development to improve leadership and management in youth mental health. The new office has taken full account of various recent reports and audits into CAMHS and is developing a new youth mental health improvement plan, which will be published shortly. This will further improve the approach of the HSE to child-centred care and to quality and safety. The HSE has worked closely with the Mental Health Commission over the past year or so to develop and implement improvement plans as needed following the interim and final reports by the commission on CAMHS. The 35 recommendations arising from the publication of the Maskey report reviewing south Kerry CAMHS care resulted in a public apology by the HSE and led to a number of follow-up actions. The latest HSE implementation framework contains a total of 63 actions, both local and national, against the 35 recommendations. Thirty-six of the actions, both local and national, have been completed, with others under way. In respect of south Kerry CAMHS, 33 of the 35 Maskey recommendations had been implemented as of April 2024.

CAMHS provides specialist mental health supports to children and young people who are experiencing moderate or severe mental health difficulties. Evidence shows that only 2% of children and young people need the support of the specialist CAMHS multidisciplinary teams. Access is based on a prioritised clinical assessment. CAMHS teams, along with a wide range of other youth mental health supports provided by or on behalf of the HSE, make a crucial and real difference to the lives of many vulnerable young people and their families each year.

As detailed in the HSE's national service plan for 2024, CAMHS expects to receive approximately 23,000 referrals this year, of whom approximately 13,700 are expected to be seen by the service in line with operational guidelines. There continues to be a growing demand for CAMHS, with the 77 community teams nationally delivering approximately 240,000 appointments for children and young people annually. Between 2020 and 2021, referral rates to CAMHS increased by 33%, while the number of new cases seen increased by 21% in the same period. To the end of August 2024, 9,489 referrals were accepted to community CAMHS, which is 6.9% more than in the same period in 2023. There were 3,681 children on the CAMHS waiting list nationally in August 2024, which represents a decrease of 210 compared with the 3,891 in August 2023. A total of 94% of urgent referrals to CAMHS in August last were responded to within 72 hours, which is above the 90% target.

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