Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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182. To ask the Minister for Health if he will address a matter (details supplied) regarding mental health; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26447/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The overall gross non-capital mental health budget for 2011- 2015 is as follows:

Included in the above figures is a total of €125 million in new ring-fenced funding which this Government has provided for mental health services since 2012, to develop and modernise services in line with 'A Vision for Change'. The new funding is aimed primarily at strengthening Community Mental Health Teams for both adults and children and enhancing specialist community mental health services for older people with a mental illness, those with an intellectual disability and mental illness, and for forensic mental health services, resulting in an additional 1,150 new posts to be recruited by the end of 2015. These new posts will facilitate the policy of moving away from traditional institutional based care to a more flexible patient-centred mental health service.

Recruitment of new posts is ongoing. 397.5 or 95.5% of the 416 posts approved in 2012 and 405.5 or 85% of the 477 posts approved in 2013 have now been filled. Of the 251 posts allocated in 2014, 52 have been hired of which 31 had started by 31st March, 2015 and a further 70.5 are at various stages of the recruitment process. Allocations for new service developments in 2015 are also due to be finalised in the very near future.