Question to the Minister for Health (Leo Varadkar, TD)
To ask the Minister for Health to set out the total amount allocated each year from 2011 to date in 2015 to mental health services; if he will provide details of the intended development of mental health services over the next three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. – Jerry Buttimer
For WRITTEN ANSWER on Tuesday, 20 January 2015.
REPLY
In line with the Programme for Government, my priority as Minister has been to modernise our mental health services, notwithstanding the severe resource constraints overall in recent years, and to prioritise new resources to underpin implementation of A Vision for Change. In that regard, the Government has provided an additional €125 million and some 1,150 posts for mental health comprising €35m with 416 posts in 2012, €35m with 477 posts in 2013, €20m for the recruitment of approximately 200 – 250 posts in 2014 and a further €35 million in 2015. The funding is being used to continue to strengthen Community Mental Health Teams for both adults and children, to enhance specialist community mental health services for older people with a mental illness, those with an intellectual disability and mental illness, forensic mental health services, and to enhance access counselling and psychotherapy in primary care and investment in suicide prevention measures.
Details of the overall gross non-capital mental health budget are published annually in the Revised Book of Estimates. Based on that information, the following table details the mental health budget for each of the years 2011 – 2015 inclusive:
| 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | Estimated Provision 2015 |
| €712m | €711m | €737m | €766m | €791.8m |
The HSE will, over the next number of years, continue to develop our Child and Adolescent, Adult, Forensic and Specialist mental health services, in line with A Vision for Change. Key priorities identified in the HSE 2015 Service Plan for this year and beyond include:
– Improve the performance of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS);
– Build on the investment in mental health services for General Adult, CAMHS, Psychiatry of Old Age, Liaison and Rehabilitation and Recovery, including appropriate 24/7 contact and response;
– Continue to build on the investment in community based mental health services in Mental Health Intellectual Disability and services for homeless mentally ill;
– Develop and implement a process to maximise the allocation of resources on an equitable basis aligned to population and deprivation.