According to reports this week, the Department of Health and HSE plan to cut the budget set aside for mental health services by more than a third.
Despite the clamour for more, not less, money to be spent on providing proper access to mental health services for the one in four people who will experience difficulties throughout their lives, the Department of Health and HSE now reportedly plan to take €12m of the €35m budget it had ringfenced for mental health and use it elsewhere.
Shari McDaid of Mental Health Reform told
The Irish Times: "We know there's huge demand for mental health services, and so it is really a serious concern.
"There's a huge pressure on the mental health services. We know that about 1 in 4 people will have a mental health difficulty in their lifetime. It's just not going to be able to meet that demand if the services just aren't given the secure funding."
Niall Breslin, for one, is hoping to see a lot more coverage given to the HSE's reported plans.
https://twitter.com/nbrez/status/722305704346914817
Labour Minister of State Kathleen Lynch - who holds overall responsibility for mental health - is resisting the plans to downsize the budget.
She said there are “no circumstances where I could agree to one-third of my budget for developments in mental health being transferred to another service for 2016.
"Such a decision would have a very serious negative impact on the implementation of mental health policy,” she wrote in a letter sent to Department of Health secretary general Jim Breslin last Thursday.
Pictured: Minister for Health Leo Varadkar (Getty)
