Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for his constant advocacy for mental health in his own area and in general too. It is not the first time he has raised these issues with me. As he knows, the development of all aspects of mental health, in line with our national policy, Sharing the Vision, remains a priority for me and for Government. This includes CAMHS, which receives around €137 million in dedicated funding annually. I was delighted yesterday to increase the budget for mental health to almost €1.3 billion. On the day of last year's budget, mental health spend for the following year was €1.221 billion. As of yesterday, it is €1.295 billion, which is a significant increase. About €108 million has been provided this year to community-based mental health organisations and NGOs, with a significant proportion dedicated to supporting youth mental health in the wider sense.

As the Senator is aware, a significant recent development is the new national office for youth mental health in the HSE. It is the first time we have ever had this. This will improve leadership, operational oversight, and management of all service delivery and improvement nationally. I wish Dr. Donan Kelly, who has taken up post, the very best. I will be working closely with him.We will have a new clinical lead, which we never had previously, for mental health, Dr. Amanda Burke from CAMHS from the Galway area, who is a fantastic person with many years of experience. I have to say I am really excited about all of these components coming together.

An ongoing focus for the HSE is to improve access to CAMHS and to reduce waiting lists. This was my focus in the budget yesterday and 68 more people will be recruited into CAMHS next year. This is really important because after the Mental Health Commission reports we know, for example, that there is a postcode lottery. I visited Arden House in Wexford last year and they work very well, have small waiting lists, and then you have the team - we see this across the whole country - in the north of the county with a higher waiting list. I also have to point out that during the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 33% more referrals into CAMHS and 21% more children were seen by the teams that were in place. Last year alone, 225,000 appointments were issued through CAMHS. Of our population of 1.2 million children or young people in the country, only 2% of them will ever need the support of CAMHS. We do have a lot of referrals into CAMHS, approximately 30%, that probably are not appropriate.

The CAMHS teams have worked closely with the Mental Health Commission over the past year to develop and implement improvement plans as needed following its interim and final reports. In addition, the HSE continues to progress the national audits. Regarding the specific point the Senator has raised, recruitment has been ongoing for a third CAMHS team in Wexford. The HSE's CHO 5 recently interviewed again for the position of consultant psychiatrist. It is a multidisciplinary team led by a consultant psychiatrist. It is understood that the post has been accepted and the candidate is currently in the clearing stage of the recruitment process. There have also been two clinical nurse specialists, one senior psychologist, and administration staff recruited to the team, which is very welcome. The CAMHS team will become operational when the CAMHS consultant psychiatrist commences in post but the timeline for this has yet to be confirmed. CHO 5 hopes to have the team in operation in early 2024. This will be subject to the context of agreeing the HSE service plan 2024 for mental health overall. I think it is an important team to get in place as soon as possible.