Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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246. To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which the mental health needs of children and adults continue to be monitored and met here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12408/17]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Budget 2017 provided for an additional €35 million for services to be initiated in 2017. Key priorities to be addressed in the HSE 2017 Service Plan include youth mental health, further improvement to child & adolescent (CAMHS) and adult services, older people's services and further enhanced out-of-hours response for those in need of urgent services. Recognising the time lag in new staff taking up posts and the completion of preparations for the introduction of these services, it is estimated that the revenue spend in 2017 associated with this increased allocation will be some €15 million. There will also be a further additional spend of €9.5 million in mental health associated with increased pay rates, bringing the total HSE funding for mental health in 2017 to €853 million.

The HSE Service Plan 2017 will also progress enhanced service user and carer engagement, ongoing implementation of the suicide reduction strategy Connecting For Life, improved early intervention for youth mental health, including embedding Jigsaw sites and development of primary-care based therapeutic responses. There will also be increased services to meet the needs of those with severe and enduring mental illness with complex presentations, improved specialist clinical responses through clinical programmes, improved regulatory compliance and incident management. The HSE continues to strengthen governance arrangements to improve performance and effective use of human, financial and infrastructural resources.

Activity data in relation to agreed priorities and targets for mental health is published in monthly Performance Reports, available on the HSE website. I , and my Departmental officials, will continue to closely monitor these HSE reports. In addition, I am regularly briefed by the HSE Mental Health Directorate on all aspects of progressing the mental health care programme, given the challenge it faces to meet the requirements of increasing demand overall on such services.