Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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380. To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which child psychiatric services remain adequate to meet modern challenges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8283/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The vulnerability of young people is demonstrated by the fact that this is the time when about 75% of mental illnesses first emerge. It is critical, therefore, that the development of a full range of mental health services, including those for young people, reflects modern national and international practice to best meet evolving challenges within our society. This Government has always recognised the need to bring about the fundamental changes necessary to mental health care, and I think that this is generally acknowledged across the mental health sector.

In line with the Programme for Government, and notwithstanding severe economic constraints, we have prioritised modernisation of mental health services in line with the widely agreed policy document A Vision for Change.This year, the total HSE budget for mental health is in the region of €790 million. We have, since 2012, provided an additional €125 million, including around 1,150 new posts to develop the mental health care programme. Approximately 235 of these posts were focused towards the Child and Adolescent area. The large majority of these have been filled, and the remainder are going through normal recruitment processes.

At the start of this year, there were54 operational child and adolescent bedsavailable to the HSE. Overall, the HSE are targeting to increase its operational capacity to 74 such beds nationally by the end of 2015. It should be noted that difficulties with re-opening some existing beds at local level, already resourced in the system, primarily relates to securing or retaining staff, rather than a question of funding. The question of providing new bed capacity beyond this year can only be realistically considered in the light of evolving annual service priorities and resource availability.

A key element in relation to the issue raise by the Deputy is the recent decision by the HSE to re-focus its various operational initiatives across the mental health spectrum to achieve improvement in mental health services for young people in 2015. This includes clearly indicated, and agreed, priority actions to enhance performance in this area. I can assure the House that I, and the Department of Health, will continue to liaise closely with the HSE over the remainder of the year to ensure that evolving challenges are met to the greatest extent possible.