Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Independent)
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566. To ask the Minister for Health regarding the €35 million ring-fenced for mental health in budget 2012 and budget 2013; the amount of the €35 million ring-fenced for 2012 which was spent in that year; the amount carried forward; of the portion carried forward from 2012 into 2013, the amount that remains unspent; the amount of the €35 million ring-fenced for 2013 that has been spent to date; the way the moneys were spent in all cases; if the programme for Government committed the Government to ring-fence €35 million in each and every budget of its term; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44619/13]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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In 2012, a special allocation of €35m was provided for mental health to be used primarily to further strengthen Community Mental Health Teams in both adult and children's mental health services, to advance activities in the area of suicide prevention, to initiate the provision of psychological and counselling services in primary care, specifically for people with mental health problems and to facilitate the re-location of mental health service users from institutional care to more independent living arrangements in their communities, in line with A Vision for Change. 414 posts were approved to implement the €35m package of special measures.

Budgetary pressures within the HSE delayed the full utilisation of the €35 million allocated in Budget 2012 for the development of community mental health services, but this sum is available again this year together with a further additional €35 million which was provided in Budget 2013 for the continued development of mental health services across a range of headings, including the further development of forensic services and community mental health teams for adults, children, older persons and mental health intellectual disability, and to the recruitment of 477 additional staff to implement these measures.

Recruitment of the posts approved for both 2012 and 2013 is continuing. As of end September, the recruitment process is complete for 378 or 91% of the 414 posts approved in 2012 and 255 or 54% of the posts approved in 2013 were in the final stages of the recruitment process and a further 149 were at earlier stages, indicating that 85% of posts are in the recruitment process. The HSE's National Recruitment Service is currently working to ensure that the remaining posts will be filled as soon as possible, from existing panels or through competition in the absence of panels, at the earliest opportunity. Options to enable more local recruitment are also being considered where this will assist in filling specific posts. I have received assurances from the HSE that the recruitment process for these new posts is being given priority within the HSE.

In Budget 2014, the Government has again re-committed to the continuation of the development of this critical service in these extremely challenging times, where the options for additional expenditure generally are very constrained. €20 million is being ringfenced for the further development of our mental health services in 2014 which will enable the HSE to continue to develop and modernise our mental health services in line with the recommendations of A Vision for Change and will allow for the recruitment of additional staff to further enhance our-

- Adult Community Mental Health Teams

- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Teams

- Specialist Mental Health Teams

In addition, this funding will facilitate the recruitment of additional Resource Officers for Suicide Prevention and the implementation of national suicide prevention initiatives.

This €20m means that, despite serious resource pressures overall, funding of €90m has been made available since 2012 up to end of 2014, which has been specifically ear-marked for mental health and suicide prevention.

In relation to the specific queries raised by the Deputy, as this is a service matter it has been referred to the HSE for direct reply.