Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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This Government has prioritised the reform of our mental health services in line with A Vision for Change and is committed in particular to the delivery of more and better quality care in the community. Towards this end, funding of €90 million and some 1,100 posts have been provided since 2012 to develop our community mental health services and suicide prevention resources.

At the end of September 2014, 770 posts of the 890 provided for in 2012 and 2013 had been recruited with the remainder at various stages in the recruitment process, with some difficulties in identifying some outstanding candidates for geographic and qualification reasons. Therefore, approximately 86% of combined 2 years posts have taken up duty.

In relation to 2014, while €20 million was provided for mental health services, the HSE National Service Plan outlined that this expenditure would be phased-in, in order for the HSE to live within the overall available resource in 2014. Accordingly, it was decided that the recruitment of 2014 posts would be commenced to provide for posts to come on stream during the last quarter of 2014. To this end, and informed by the analysis carried out, some 200 posts have now been identified from the 2014 allocation and the recruitment process has now commenced.

In relation to the specific details of the recruitment of posts per region and initiative, as this is a service issue the question has been referred to the HSE for direct reply to the Deputy. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with the Executive.