Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

This year, working with the Minister, I have secured funding that brings our annual investment in mental health services to almost €1.6 billion. This is my sixth budget in a row as Minister of State with responsibility for mental health. It is also the sixth year increased funding for mental health. In 2026, we will add 300 whole-time equivalent staff to our mental health services. That accounts for 9% of total health service staffing growth next year.

This year, my focus is clear. It will be on crisis support and suicide reduction. We know that timely intervention can save lives. That is why the cornerstone of this year's budget is a robust investment in crisis services. We will fund specialist nursing teams in all model 4 hospital emergency departments to provide out-of-hours support for those in crisis. In the community, we will establish three new crisis resolution services, including drop-in Solas crisis cafés, offering safe, welcoming spaces for people in distress. These will be located in Donegal, Kerry and the midlands. We will also expand the suicide crisis assessment nurse, SCAN, programme. There will be 12 posts, which will be geographically located.

A new crisis response pathway for children and young people will be developed, including 19 new CAMHS specialist doctors dedicated to emergency liaison and out-of-hours care. This investment will ensure that young people in crisis receive timely, expert support where they need it most. Building on the progress of other budgets, we are again allocating targeted funding for Traveller-specific suicide prevention initiatives, co-designed with the Traveller community to ensure cultural relevance and effectiveness. Our community and voluntary partners are the backbone of suicide prevention efforts. Organisations like Pieta provide essential counselling, bereavement support, training and peer-led services. I am proud to confirm continued and expanded funding for these HSE-funded partners.

Turning to youth mental health, we are enhancing crisis supports and expanding early intervention services. Next year, we will invest in Jigsaw youth mental services for two new areas of the country, Waterford and the south east, and County Clare. There will be additional mental health beds. I secured funding for 77 whole-time equivalent staff to open ten dedicated CAMHS beds in the new national children's hospital, funding to reopen 11 CAMHS beds at Linn Dara, and funding to open ten new intensive care rehabilitation beds at the national forensic mental health service, which is really important to prevent overcrowding in our prisons.

To touch on some more supports that will be put in place, there will be a new dual-diagnosis team for the national clinical programmes. There will be funding to reopen the Keltoi treatment centre in Dublin for dual diagnosis. There will be new consultants for perinatal mental health supports. There will be two new liaison teams for mental health services for older people, a new adult eating disorder team, a new CAMHS early intervention disorder team and a new early intervention and psychosis team.

This funding of these 300 staff is vital. My main focus over the next 12 months will be to make sure that these staff are hired as quickly as possible. There is a geographical element to my budget, which is important. For the first time ever, having clinical nurse specialists and advanced nurse practitioners in the level 4 emergency department out of hours will make a significant difference to people who present in crisis.

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