Joan Freeman (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak about the €35 million allocated to mental health. The announcement was not specific in terms of where the money was to be allocated. My response to that is that this is typical. It is a pacifier for the public in that €35 million sounds great, but the amount has not increased when funding for every other Department has increased. Every Government gives the same amount of money every year, but it is not allocated for any specific area. For example, gardaí, nursing and teaching posts will increase, but nothing has been allocated specifically to mental health.

I call on the Leader to ask the Department of Finance why there is such vagueness about this matter. Will the Government do what it did last year, namely, remove a chunk of money and allocate it where it wants? I understand the Health Service Executive will come up with a plan in the coming weeks, but the budget will have been forgotten by then. Is that deliberate to allow for chunks of money to be removed from the mental health budget in the hope that no one will notice? No one in the Government will care. I call on the Leader to invite representatives of the Department of Finance to the House to allow us get clear answers on the way the money is being allocated and to explain why we were overlooked in the mental health budget.