Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I welcome this debate to mark World Mental Health Day. The simple truth is still the strongest line: there is no health without mental health. Today is about removing stigma, yes, but also about showing that the services are there, close to home and getting stronger year-on-year.

Since 2020, funding has risen sharply and budget 2026 builds again on that. I want to commend the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and her team on securing a record allocation of almost €1.6 billion, the sixth increase in a row. It adds 300 new staff across services and puts real weight behind crisis supports and suicide prevention. In short, it backs what clinicians, families and service users have asked for: earlier help, easier access, better alternatives to emergency departments and more joined-up care. That is the direction of travel and it is the right one.

Funding will establish specialist mental health nursing teams out-of-hours in all model 4 emergency departments, so if someone arrives at 11 p.m. in acute distress, the right expertise is there at the right time. We will also see three crisis resolution services with associated Solace crisis cafés in Donegal, Kerry and the midlands, giving people a safe, community-based alternative to the ED.

I welcome plans to expand the suicide crisis assessment nurse service working with GPs, because many people first reach out in primary care. These are practical fixes to real-world issues people and practitioners regularly face. The opening of 21 acute CAMHS beds, including ten at the new National Children’s Hospital is very welcome as is the reopening of 11 beds at Linn Dara. These are badly needed, as are the ten new intensive care rehabilitation unit beds at the National Forensic Mental Health Service in Portrane. That increases capacity where pressure is most acute and it builds a more humane, therapeutic pathway for recovery.

For children and young people, a priority is early help: two new early intervention youth services, a digital single point of access so families are not lost in the maze, more eating-disorder capacity in CAMHS and discovery colleges to equip young people with skills and confidence. When help is easy to find, it is easier to take. We are expanding talking therapies, rolling out a digital mental health strategy and growing peer-support roles because recovery is often peer-led and community-anchored. We are strengthening the national clinical programmes, dual diagnosis, perinatal mental health, early intervention in psychosis, adult eating disorders and services for older people, so the specialist help is there when general support is not.

Crucially, progress is not just on paper. The Mental Health Commission’s latest reports show continued falls in seclusion and restraint, a hard-won shift towards human-rights-based, person-centred care. That is what service users have asked for and that is what services are delivering.

The Government is also investing in the fabric of care and facilities which is welcome. Some €31 million in capital this year, the largest single-year mental health infrastructure allocation, funds safer inpatient environments, community hubs and specialist capacity like the new eating disorders hub at Mount Carmel, with feasibility work for Ireland’s first mother and baby perinatal mental health unit.

I want to place a particular focus on men’s mental health. Men are more likely to die by suicide and less likely to seek help early. I really welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Butler’s ring-fenced allocation of €2 million for more than 15,000 free counselling sessions for men, with supports available by phone and in person, and targeted work with young Traveller men through Exchange House. The aim is simple: lower the threshold, fit services around men’s lives and tackle stigma head-on.

However, we also know that care does not start and end in clinics. It starts where people live. In my area, for example, the men’s sheds in Dún Laoghaire, Blackrock and Loughlinstown are quiet powerhouses: a bench, a kettle, a shared project and suddenly the conversation is made easier. You do not have to call it therapy for it to be therapeutic. Government can help by signposting, backing social prescribing and making sure local grants and premises are there for groups that hold men in the community before they ever reach a crisis point.

Progress also means joining the dots across Government, housing, education, work and justice. The new interdepartmental steering group for mental health, bringing together 14 departments alongside the HSE and the Mental Health Commission, is designed to do exactly that, aligning delivery with Sharing the Vision and the next suicide reduction strategy informed by nearly 1,900 public submissions, 85% of whom said suicide reduction should be a Government priority.

People told us to make access easier, target supports better and fix the social determinants that drive distress. These voices have been heard. We are seeing the long-term curve bend. Between 2000 and 2021, Ireland’s suicide rate fell by 28%. Preliminary figures show that there were 302 deaths in 2023. We are now at the lowest preliminary level in over 20 years, and self-harm rates are down 12% since 2010. Every life lost is one too many, but it matters that investment, reform and community action are saving lives. Our job is to keep going, to keep investing and to keep reducing the stigma in order that people reach out early and are supported. It was great to see that every mental health nurse graduating this year has been offered a permanent contract, reducing reliance on agencies and giving patients continuity of care. That is investment not only in posts, but in people.

Budget 2026 is really encouraging in this area. The allocations and investment secured by the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, will ensure faster access through out-of-hours emergency teams, more services in the community and work on a single point of access for children and young people at an early stage. The direction is right, with record funding, smarter pathways, stronger community roots and a quiet revolution in how care is delivered, with dignity and partnership at its heart. On World Mental Health Day, let us say clearly to every person who is struggling that help is closer than you think. Please reach out.

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