Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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139. To ask the Minister for Health if he will report on the commitment in the programme for Government to develop services and specialties to support persons with mental health difficulties; and if he will further report on the commitment to implement the national dementia strategy. [41862/17]

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Partnership Government gives a clear commitment to increasing the mental health budget annually, as resources allow, to expand existing services. Since 2012, the overall gross non-capital health budget for the HSE has been increased from €711 million to over €850 million in 2017. This is an increase of €140 million over this period.

Key priorities to be addressed in the HSE's 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.

The increased investment in mental health services over the last number of years has helped to facilitate an increase in the number and staffing levels of both Adult and Children & Adolescent Community Mental Health Teams. Of the additional 1,550 new mental health posts approved since 2012, some 1,150 have been, or are in the process of being recruited.

Construction has started on the new 120-bed hospital to replace the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, along with a new 10-bed forensic CAMHS unit and a new 10-bed Mental Health Intellectual Disability Unit. The new National Forensic Mental Health facility is due to become operational in early 2020.

Counselling services across both primary and secondary care have also been developed, including the provision of three new Jigsaw youth mental health services in Cork (2 sites), Dublin (2 sites) and Limerick (1 site). In addition, funding has been provided for the recruitment of an additional 22 psychologist posts and 114 assistant psychology posts in primary care. These posts were advertised recently.

The Irish National Dementia Strategy was launched in December 2014, with the objective of increasing awareness, ensuring early diagnosis and intervention and developing enhanced community based services.

In parallel with the Strategy, the Department of Health and the HSE have agreed a joint initiative with the Atlantic Philanthropies to implement significant elements of the Strategy over the period 2014-2017. This Implementation Programme represents a combined investment of €27.5 million, with the Atlantic Philanthropies contributing €12 million and the HSE €15.5 million.

Funding of €1.23 million has recently been secured under the 2017 Dormant Accounts Action Plan to support a number of dementia projects. These include post-diagnostic supports, dementia friendly communities, assistive technology libraries and further exploratory work on the development of a national dementia registry. These measures will help people with dementia to live well in their communities for as long as possible.

The Department and the HSE are working on a mid-term review of the implementation of the National Dementia Strategy which will identify the achievements so far and set out the further work that is required to implement the Strategy over the next 12 months and beyond. The resources required for the ongoing implementation of the Strategy can only be considered in the context of the Estimates and Budget process. The mid-term review will assist in identifying further actions required and will be helpful in the context of budgetary considerations.