Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 230: To ask the Minister for Health the measures that have been put in place to address any gaps in psychiatric hospitals and services that may arise in view of the current public sector retirement programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13041/12]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The cumulative impact of staff reductions from this year and previous years presents a significant challenge for the health system generally in delivering services. The priority is to reform how health services are delivered in order to ensure a more productive and cost effective health system. Like other care areas, efficiency and other savings will be required from the mental health service and it will have to deal with its share of staff reductions.

The HSE's Service Plan includes a commitment to reduce acute in-patient capacity by a minimum of 153 beds nationally in 2012, in line with the recommendations of A Vision for Change. A key priority for the HSE is the reconfiguration of acute in-patient services and the redeployment of staff resources away from old institutional settings or over-provision of acute in-patient beds towards community based services. In that regard, a special allocation of €35 million for mental health was announced in Budget 2012 in line with the Programme for Government commitments. Funding from this special allocation will be used primarily to strengthen Community Mental Health Teams in both Adult and Children's mental health services. Approximately 400 additional staff will be recruited to support these and other initiatives in mental health.

In the context set out above, planning for staff exits from mental health as well as across the wider health service commenced in October last year and is continuing through the transition phase. The plans reflect the fact that the number of staff leaving varies from region to region and from service to service. The HSE is seeking to mitigate the impact of the retirements on frontline services by, among other measures, using the provisions of the Public Service Agreement to bring about greater flexibilities in work practices and rosters, redeployment and other changes to achieve more efficient delivery of services.