Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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582. To ask the Minister for Health the percentage of the overall health budget that is devoted to mental health services; if this percentage is in line with the amount advocated in A Vision For Change; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34623/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The overall gross non-capital mental health budget for 2015 is around €792 million. This represents 6.4% of the overall gross non-capital health budget of €12.295 billion.

A Vision for Changerecommended that there be a commitment to progressively increase the proportion of funding given to mental health services which, if implemented, would have increased the percentage total health spend on mental health to 8.24% by 2016. This Government has prioritised funding for mental health, despite the severe resource constraints of recent years.

Historically, funding for the mental health services constituted a high proportion of overall health spend in Ireland. In part, this reflected the traditional emphasis on an institutional model of service delivery with a clinical care focus. In addition, other areas of the overall health budget in Ireland may not have received an adequate level of funding appropriate to a modern community-focussed health service. This has been rectified in recent times in, for example, the primary and community care areas, whose development is also important for users of social care services such as people with mental health issues.

In line with A Vision for Change,the HSE mental health service is now moving towards a more person-centred recovery model of care, with an increasing focus on community delivery. This model of service is widely agreed to be more focussed on the needs of the service user in the first instance. It is also considered to be more cost effective, and aims for a planned greater integration of services across the primary and community care sectors over time. Therefore, while every effort will be made to maximise resources for mental health, the promotion of positive mental health extends on a much broader range of HSE service areas.

A total of €125m additional ring-fenced funding has been provided by this Government since 2012 for mental health developments. This has facilitated upwards of 1,100 new staff for the enhancement of community mental health teams, in particular, and to underpin a recovery-focussed and community-centred service. Bearing in mind the many competing demands on both the wider Health budget and Exchequer funding generally, this represents a substantial and widely acknowledged ongoing commitment to mental health services.