Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Members of the House for their contributions. I thank all of those who work across mental health services in public, private and voluntary community services. They do a phenomenal amount of work.

I want to refer to a couple of issues that were raised. I was asked whether the Mental Health Bill would fall if the Government was dissolved. Technically, it will fall. However, on the two days of debate on Second Stage on the Bill, we got the full co-operation of the House. From having spoken to Members of the House - we do not know who will make up the next House – the majority are happy with the Bill. We will have to deal with amendments on Report Stage, but there is an unwritten understanding that those in the next Government would take up that Bill again. An awful lot of time has gone into it and there is a lot of consensus on it already. There is no reason we should not get it finished. I am pushing very hard to have amendments ready in order to go to Committee Stage as soon as possible.

Mental Health Reform has spoken about amendments it has discussed with me. We will work on them. A period of ten years was initially written into the Bill because it would refer to a period of five years after the Bill was enacted. It takes a while for Bills to be enacted. We will work on reducing the ten-year period to five years. There is no problem there. There was great consensus on the Bill, which is very welcome, from all sides of the House. I want to acknowledge that.

I want to speak about raising awareness and reducing stigma. The more we talk about mental health the better. As I said in my opening speech, one of the areas for which I prioritised funding this year was €2 million in new funding to reach out to men with mental health difficulties, including emotional well-being. They might not feel well in themselves. We know that two-thirds of all mental health supports accessed in this country are accessed by women and only one-third by men. We address men's mental health through organisations such as Men's Sheds, Tidy Towns committees and other organisations. The more we can encourage people to have a conversation, cup of coffee or water cooler moment and reach out for help the better. There is help out there.

A lot of people spoke about mental health funding. It is important to put this on the record. The total allocation for mental health services for 2025 is just shy of €1.5 billion. When I came into this post it was just shy of €1 billion. It has increased by €495 million over five budgets.

The funding tables show the spend on mental health, specifically in the Department of Health. Other parts of the Department do not factor into how we spend funding on people who have mental health issues. The data is not an accurate reflection of full mental health spending because the figure referenced does not include funding for other parts of the health service that provide mental health services and support, such as psychotropic medicines funded by the primary care reimbursement service, liaison mental health services in acute hospitals, some dual diagnosis of addiction and mental health services and mental health and well-being promotion.

The figure also does not include spending by other Departments and services that incorporate psychological or mental health support, such as the Prison and Probation Services, the Defence Forces or the Department of Education. It is very hard to determine the exact figures.

In the budget last week, I was pleased to secure 45 whole-time equivalents for the National Forensic Mental Health Service Hospital in Portrane in order to open the remaining beds in that service. That will have a knock-on effect on people in prisons around the country who need to be in that hospital. That is a positive move we were able to make.

I was struck by what Deputy Lahart said, when he stated that we often talk about mental health but we all have to look after our own mental health. He spoke about politicians being, at times, subjected to language that is not always appropriate. There is an onus on each and every one of us to recognise this because we all only have one life and life is short.

I wish to talk a little about prevention and early intervention. I am delighted to report that 10,000 people are using the My Mental Health Plan, which is an online resource the HSE has put in place. The latter announced the figures in this regard earlier today. People are reaching out for help.

I firmly believe there is no health without mental health. It is really important that each play our own little part by reaching out to friends and family to have that conversation and say hello. There were some emotional contributions here today. It would be remiss of me not to remember all those we have loved and have lost to suicide. It is a very difficult time for families and communities.

I have written to every Member of the Dáil and Seanad. The letter will be in people's post boxes today. We have a very good resource online that takes 60 minutes to complete. It will help us deal with how we talk about suicide so that we know the appropriate language to use if somebody comes into our offices or contacts us. We could ask our staff and the staff of the Houses to do it. I have asked all the Departments to do it. It takes just 60 minutes to do this online course that helps us have the appropriate tools, skill set and language in order that if somebody tells us they are finding it very hard and are suicidal, we will know how to react. There is one for everybody in the audience. Members might take a look at it and encourage the staff in their offices to use it as well.

I thank everyone for turning up. It can be difficult to get people to come into the Chamber to speak on Thursday evenings, but we have had plenty of speakers this afternoon. I appreciate what everyone has said. I thank Members very much.

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