Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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83. To ask the Minister for Health the funding being provided for mental health crisis supports and suicide prevention in 2026; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [64090/25]

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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The question is in the context of significant additional funding for mental health services over the past five years, resulting in a €1.6 billion investment in mental health services for 2026. For the sixth year in a row, there has been an increase in staffing. I would like the Minister to make a statement on the funding provided for mental health crisis supports and suicide prevention in 2026.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. I am taking this question on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, who unfortunately cannot be here today. The total allocation for mental health services in 2026 is almost €1.6 billion, the sixth year in a row in which the mental health budget has increased. This increase in funding for mental health services will enable continued policy implementation and service improvements in line with our national mental health policy, Sharing the Vision, and our national suicide and self harm reduction strategy, Connections for Life. Across the board, we have seen mental health promotion and early intervention through specialist mental health services.

This record budget will allow for a focus on improving support for people in mental health crises in hospitals and in the community through an additional €15 million for crisis supports and suicide prevention. Significant progress has been made over the past three years to develop alternative crisis mental health pathways. However, emergency departments continue to see high volumes of mental health presentations.

Investment this year will be used to establish specialist nursing teams in all model 4 hospital emergency departments, three new crisis resolution services in Donegal, Kerry and the midlands, 12 additional suicide crisis assessment nurses and several Traveller-specific suicide prevention initiatives, the development of the new crisis response pathway for children and young people, increased funding for suicide prevention community and voluntary organisations and funding to implement the new suicide reduction strategy. As occurs each year following the budget, discussions take place with HSE on details relating to specific service initiatives in the context of preparing the HSE service plan for 2026, including that for mental health.

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. It is extremely important that we continue to progress investment in our mental health services. We still lag behind the internationally accepted norms for spending on mental health as a proportion of our budget. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has done some tremendous work in this regard. We have identified the tsunami of mental health issues that have arisen since Covid. As a practising GP, it is important to me that when we refer people who are in crisis that there are adequate pathways for them to achieve treatment. I have dealt with situations where young people in crisis, who are actively suicidal, have sat in emergency rooms for eight or nine hours waiting for an assessment. Putting specialist nursing teams into all model 4 emergency departments is a good initiative because it will provide an immediate assessment by a specialist nurse.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I absolutely agree. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is very passionate about this and has been working very hard on it. There are three new crisis resolution services, that is, crisis cafés, to support people in distress. They are located in Donegal, Kerry and Tullamore in the midlands. An allocation of €4 million has been given for this. Funding of €1 million has been provided for 12 additional suicide services where nurses support people in distress who present to GPs in the community. There is funding of €415,000 for several Traveller-specific suicide prevention initiatives, which have been codesigned with the Traveller community. There is increased funding of €1.7 million for suicide prevention in the community and for voluntary organisations, including Pieta. Funding of €1 million has been given to implement a new suicide reduction strategy. There is €4 million to develop a new crisis response pathway for children and young people, with 19 new CAMHS specialist doctors for out-of-hours emergency liaison, as well as five new adult liaison psychiatrists. There is more but my time is up.

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome all those initiatives. It is really important that they are integrated with existing mental health services. Initiatives must be even and consistent throughout the country, with adequate access. In addition, we need to look at acute mental health capacity in its totality in terms of beds. In the acute psychiatric unit in Roscommon University Hospital, up to a third of beds are taken by people who would be better served in supported situations in the community. In County Roscommon, there were many community hospitals and problems were identified with them. However, after the closure of the psychiatric hospital in Castlerea, there has been no replacement capacity in the community to step people down into those beds and create space for acute presentations to the psychiatric unit in Roscommon University Hospital.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I certainly will go back to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, on those very important points. I absolutely agree we need more beds. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is very much aware of that. It is something the Government is looking at and the Minister definitely will work on it.

There is a challenge in dealing with suicide in extremely complex cases. We have seen cases where a single event is the factor that leads someone to take his or her own life. There are huge issues there. We need to get supports in place for families, individuals and communities. An action the Minister of State is working on is the new suicide reduction strategy. It is being drafted and will include information on beds and so on. Implementation of this new strategy will be developed in quarter 1 of 2026. I will convey the Deputy's concerns about the need for more beds and I thank him for highlighting it.