Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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220. To ask the Minister for Health his views on research (details supplied) regarding mental health; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44033/13]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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As Minister with responsibility for Mental Health, I fully appreciate the need to prioritise child and adolescent mental health services.

In 2012 and 2013, additional funding totalling €70 million was made available for the continued development of our mental health services. This is being used primarily to further strengthen community mental health teams for adults, children, older persons and mental health intellectual disability. Just over 890 posts were approved for this purpose. Of these, 150 posts from the 2012 funding, and 80 posts from the 2013 funding, were specifically targeted at enhancing Child and Adolescent Community Mental Health Teams. Despite delays in recruitment until 2013, as of 30 September 2013, the recruitment process was completed for approximately 110 of the 150 posts for Child and Adolescent Community Mental Health Team's in 2013 and a further 5 posts have accepted. As of the same date, approximately 30 posts have been accepted from the 80 posts provided from the 2012 additional allocation.

A significant proportion of the funding initiative announced in the recent Budget will also be directed at improving mental health for the young and on further enhanced suicide prevention measures, details will be outlined in the HSE National Service Plan for 2014.

In addition to HSE direct provision for Child and Adolescent Mental Health services, the Executive also funds various non-statutory agencies and significant work is being done, for example, by organisations such as Jigsawor through the See Change and Make a Ripple campaigns. These campaigns are aimed at overcoming the negative perception of mental health issues among young people.

Tackling the issue of bullying in schools is also a key objective of the Government. A new Action Plan on Bullying was launched last January by my colleagues the Minister for Education and Skills, and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, to help prevent bullying at both primary and secondary levels. In addition, the National Office for Suicide Prevention in partnership with the Department of Education and Skills has developed national guidelines on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention for the post primary school sector.

The Government is committed in progressing mental health well-being for young people, in line with evolving priorities and overall resources. In this context, research in this area is taken into account by the Department of Health and the HSE as appropriate in relation to advancing policies and service development.