Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will have to be really quick as I have to go. We have been accused of allocating money but not spending it, or allocating it for a year ahead but not planning for the following years. There is a very firm commitment from this Government, however, that we will implement A Vision for Change. The figure of €35 million, or €37.5 million each year, has been put out there and whether it is spent year after year or all spent in one year does not make any difference as long as we plan ahead properly. Staffing has been a problem and I can get an exact breakdown of what has been spent this year for Senator Freeman. Some of it has gone in capital and some has moved away from services because of an inability to spend it. This year, €400,000 of the funding has gone to allocate 60 new places for the training of psychiatric nurses. This will increase by over 45%, to 70 over the next four years, to help us tackle the problem. Next year and the year after that we will be able to spend this money. The €35 million will be spent over two years and next year I will look for and expect the same amount. Whether it is spent in one year or over two years, the big issue is that it is spent.

On the task force, three groups are working together at the moment. We are working with younger people and held our first youth forum this week. We had engagement from throughout the country and across the spectrum, from children in college to children in bad areas, to hear exactly what they wanted to say. A body of work is ongoing involving the Departments of Health, Children and Youth Affairs and Education and Skills to identify the services that exist, where they overlap, where they are not working and where we can improve them. Some 155 services have already been identified and many can be amalgamated.We will not be issuing a report by Christmas. We will issue recommendations, some of which might require legislative change or funding. That is a work in progress and it is hard to identify exactly what will come out of it.

As regards dual diagnosis, in the coming weeks we will be appointing a clinical lead. There is a programme being identified and worked on. Once that clinical lead is appointed he or she will pull together a team which will plan a framework on how to deal with this problem. It is a bit of a chicken and egg situation as to which comes first and how one deals with the two, three or four at the same time.

There is an interdepartmental team working with the Department of justice. They have made recommendations, specifically on care for people while they are in prison. The next phase which will happen in the coming weeks is to look at the follow-on plan for what happens to people when they leave. More often than not they have more help when they are in prison than when they leave. That is the next body of work that needs to happen.

I have to leave but perhaps I can come back to Senators on some of the issues they have raised. I can address the issues properly then. I thank the House for this opportunity and I apologise that I have to leave.