Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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137. To ask the Minister for Health the plans to provide mental health specialist nursing teams in the emergency departments of all model 4 hospitals out-of-hours; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [64091/25]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The total allocation for mental health services in 2026 is over €1.5 billion, which is the sixth year in a row in which the mental health budget has been increased.

This increase in funding for mental health services represents a significant investment which will enable continued policy implementation and service improvement in line with our national mental health policy, Sharing the Vision, and our national suicide and self-harm reduction strategy Connecting for Life, across a broad continuum from mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention, through to specialist mental health services. This year’s budget provided the opportunity to focus on investing in crisis support and suicide prevention; youth mental health and CAMHS, and expanding the National Clinical Programmes.

This includes funding for Specialist Nursing Teams made up of Advanced Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Specialists in all ‘Model 4’* hospital emergency departments out-of-hours (6pm-2am) to support people in crisis.

As occurs each year following the Budget, discussions will now take place with the HSE on details relating to specific service initiatives in the context of preparing the HSE Service Plan 2025, including that for Mental Health.

Accordingly, this initiative will have to operationalised by the HSE in due course.