Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Deputies Anne Rabbitte, Catherine Connolly, Noel Grealish and Hildegarde Naughton have the final Topical Issue matter. The Deputies have one minute each.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputy Noel Grealish is not available.

Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputies may share the four minutes three ways. I call Deputy Anne Rabbitte, who is the first person on the list.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for taking our Topical Issue matter this evening. I will be begin by wishing him the very best in his new role.

Yesterday, an article in The Irish Times, which the Minister of State might have read, stated that over 2,400 children were waiting for child mental health services. The Minister may ask what that has to do with the Topical Issue matter I raise. I will quote two parts of the article. It states, "Anne O'Connor, national director mental health, HSE, points out that CAMHS was never designed to be a catch-all service, but to cater for children and adolescents with severe and enduring mental illnesses". She goes on, in an extensive article on which I compliment her, to refer to Galway youth counselling services. She states, "Deirdre Bermingham, managing director of Youth Work Ireland Galway, says that in 2011 they identified a gap for the young people they worked with in accessing counselling services". With funds from dormant accounts and the Maureen O'Connell trust they were able to help families. Since 2011, the group has managed to help 800 families, but now they face the closing of their doors.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I want to add my voice to that. This does not make sense. Galway's youth counselling service is excellent, with 800 adolescents having come through its door since 2012, 191 of those in 2016. It provides a service to Tuam, Ballinasloe, Loughrea and Galway city. It has struggled, but it has provided an excellent service. It is unique because that young adult age group can walk in the door, so most of the referrals are from families, schools, to a lesser extent from the health service, the gardaí and so on. It provides a unique venue in that young people are going in for other services and can avail of this specialist service. They are simply asking for a stable source of funding to enable this work to continue. It is cost effective on every level and I ask the Minister of State to take a hands-on approach to its imminent closure and prevent it.

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I join my colleagues from Galway on this issue. We represents the constituencies of Galway East and Galway West. Deputies Rabbitte and Connolly have made very clear our concerns about the cessation of the mental health services provided by Youth Work Ireland in Galway. We met with young people in Youth Work Ireland Galway this week and they spoke eloquently about the benefits Youth Work Ireland Galway provides for them. This is a service which does not require a referral from a doctor. Teenagers and children as young as 12 can walk in and speak to a qualified counsellor at their ease in a very informal setting. There is huge benefit from that.

The funding that would be required to keep this service going is minimal in the grand scheme of things. I urge the Minister of State to look favourably on this service because it is critical for the young people of Galway East and West.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Members for their contributions and for bringing this vital piece of infrastructure in Galway, and the challenges facing it, to my attention.

Mental health is a key care programme for this Government. Reflecting the priority we attach to this, HSE mental health funding increased from €826 million in 2016 to over €850 million this year. That will enable the continued development of a range of services including adult, child and adolescent, forensic and specialist services in mental health. In particular, €5 million has been provided to extend the counselling in primary care, CIPC, programme to under 18s.

The counselling in primary care, CIPC, initiative, launched in June 2013, is a national service provided under the governance framework of the national counselling service of the HSE. Short-term counselling is provided for adults with non-complex psychological problems aged 18 and over, and who hold a valid medical card. Referral into the service is by the person’s general practitioner, GP, or another member of the primary care team.

CIPC is a short-term counselling service that provides up to eight counselling sessions with a professionally qualified and accredited counsellor or therapist. Within the specialist secondary care mental health service counselling and psychotherapy is provided within community mental health teams, when service users are clinically assessed as requiring this intervention. Counselling is also provided by a range of voluntary organisations across the health service, and the HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention funds voluntary organisations such as Pieta House to provide support across a range of needs.

The provision of a quality counselling service across both primary and secondary care will be developed further, as resources permit. In the first instance, the HSE mental health division must ensure that the funding currently allocated is being used to best effect to deliver the best outcomes. I understand that Youth Work Ireland is a counselling service based in County Galway. It was formed in 2011 to deliver a youth counselling service. The group works closely with Jigsaw, Galway adult counselling HSE, primary care clinical psychology HSE and the Galway Traveller Movement. Counselling is also specifically provided for young people aged 12 to 21 years, delivered over a period of 38 weeks annually. Currently, the service is based in Galway city, Tuam, Ballinasloe and Loughrea. The counsellors who deliver the service are fully accredited and suitably qualified to work with adolescents.

Funding had originally been provided for a three year period by St. Vincent De Paul, as well as other sources such as Electric Aid, local schools, etc. This time-limited funding stream ceased last year. The local HSE resource office for suicide prevention provided €15,000 to ensure continuity of this service. The executive has recently committed to providing the same amount for 2017, in addition to a smaller funding contribution to the group from Tusla. I understand that the HSE is reviewing the position of the group, including the concerns raised by the Deputies.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response, but it is the response I expected. I have been raising this issue through communications with the former Minister of State, in the Department, Deputy McEntee, for the past number of months because a red flag was raised about it. I would have communicated with the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister, Deputy Harris and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, to try to find where it would fit into. I am delighted the Minister of State is here to take the issue today because it is a HSE issue.

It would cost €35,000 to run this service on an annual basis. If that figure is divided by the number of children who are availing of it, it works out at €175 of an investment per child over a 12 week period. These children are knocking on the door asking for help. As Deputy Connolly said, 50% refer themselves. Are we going to tell those children that we will not give them the €175 because we do not believe in that investment? Those children need to hear from the Minister of State that a lifeline in the form of an investment will be given by this Government. They can no longer shake fund-raising buckets at people in an effort to raise funding to keep the doors open and save children's lives.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I wish the Minister of State well in his new job. However, I honestly would have expected a different answer. This is a service that is working and it should be examined because it really could inform policy. The figure mentioned by Deputy Anne Rabbitte is in regard to the existing service, which is looking for a slight increase to cover three new areas, Gort, Carna and Clifden. It is a unique service because Jigsaw does not give a service to 12 year olds. We have these young children and adolescents walking in, getting a unique service and coming out the better for it, as they informed us when we met them on Monday.

We are standing here across party and across constituencies in that we have support from all three constituencies, Galway West, Galway East and Roscommon-Galway. I am appealing to the Minister of State to take a hands-on approach. I appreciate it is Civil Service-speak that has come back in the answer and we do not need that. These are young people who have shown an interest in the political system, who have used their time to educate us and who have given us a solution, and that solution will save the Government money. I hesitate to mention the suicide statistics for that age group and I want to avoid that. I ask the Minister of State to come back to us with a hands-on approach.

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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This service is filling a gap in that Jigsaw does not provide services for 12 to 15 year olds. As Deputy Rabbitte outlined, it is €35,000 to continue the counselling service and €60,000 in total for the year. The HSE is reviewing the position. I ask the Minister of State to look favourably on this and to work with the HSE to see what can be done to ensure this critical service for our young people is continued.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I again thank the Deputies. One of the interesting lines I took from what Deputy Connolly alluded to as Civil Service-speak is that, "The counsellors that deliver the service are fully accredited and suitably qualified to work with adolescents". For me, that is one of the more important lines. Obviously, before I make any commitment, either here or anywhere else, I have a responsibility to see that this is there. Given it is there in written form, I take comfort from that.

Deputy Rabbitte is right that this is not just 800 people but 800 families. It has a very significant impact on people, their well-being and the cohesiveness of communities to have families functioning well. Of course, we have to invest. As all speakers have said, these are people who walk in, put their hand up and say, "I need help". If we as a State are going to let them down and not react to their needs, then we are all at nothing here. While I cannot give a commitment right here and now, I will give the Deputies a commitment to take this on myself and to have a look at it. I will come back to the three Deputies within a week and will meet them within a week, and I will have some progress made on this issue within that week.

I am not aware the service has made any funding application to the HSE under section 39 or the lottery funding, which are the two avenues whereby it can apply to the HSE. Before next week, the Deputies might ascertain from the service whether it has applied to the HSE under section 39 or the lottery funding. I appreciate what the Deputies have said about the amount of money in the greater scheme of things. It is a critical service. I give my commitment to address this issue personally within a week and to come back to the three Deputies within a week. That is what we are here for, namely, to try to solve these issues.