Minister of State at the Department of Health (Deputy Mary Butler): I will be sharing time with three colleagues. I am glad of the opportunity to speak about mental health in advance of World Mental Health Day on 10 October. Mental health is something that touches every one of us, whether personally, through our families and loved ones or through the experiences of people in our communities across the country.

I would like to begin by drawing everyone's attention to this year's theme for World Mental Health Day, which is, "Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change". This theme reminds us of the simple truth that people who have experienced mental health challenges are experts in their own lives and their voices must be at the centre of how we design, deliver and improve mental health services. I can confidently say that people's authentic lived and living experiences of mental health have been firmly at the heart of my role as Minister of State with responsibility for mental health. I know that the voices of people who use our mental health services, their family members and carers and other committed advocates help us to better understand what is working well and where we need to improve.

They are voices that challenge assumptions, reduce stigma and promote compassion. Each voice helps us to build services that are responsive to the realities of people's lives. Lived experience is not anecdotal. It is a form of expertise in its own right. It is distinct from but equal to clinical and policy knowledge and it must be recognised as such within our policymaking processes. That means moving beyond individual perspectives to help articulate shared priorities, values and evidence ensuring that policy decisions are grounded in real-world needs and outcomes.

This is my seventh budget as Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and I believe there is real momentum in mental health reform and service development. Over recent years, we have driven significant progress in expanding specialist mental health services and delivering the reforms set out in Sharing the Vision. These reforms are no longer simply policy commitments. They are now visible in services, supports and interventions that are improving people's lives across the country. When I first became Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, there were approximately 220 specialist mental health teams in place. Today, that number is approaching 300 with further teams in development and recruitment continuing across our national clinical programmes. Those teams are transforming how we deliver care. They support people with increasingly complex needs, manage higher levels of clinical risk and provide more specialised, responsive and person-centred care for individuals and families when they need it most.

We also now have significant funds available to advance capital mental health projects with €470 million for mental health under the NDP health allocation 2026 to 2030. This will help us to deliver critical new mental health infrastructure, including a perinatal mother and baby unit and new adult eating disorder inpatient centres. In next year’s budget, for the first time, I have allocated funding to appoint an assistant national director based in HSE capital and estates to really drive mental health capital projects. I am really serious about delivering new infrastructure and spending our full allocation over the next five years. We have enacted the Mental Health Act 2026 delivering the most significant modernisation of our mental health legislation in a generation. We continue to increase investment in prevention and early intervention recognising that supporting people earlier leads to better outcomes. Last year, we launched free mental health supports for men and already more than 8,000 men have accessed support, many for the first time. We recently launched a new national strategy to reduce suicide and self-harm providing an ambitious and evidence-based roadmap for the decade ahead. These developments are not isolated achievements. They are part of a broader programme of reform and investment across mental health services.

While challenges remain and there is more work to do, these achievements show that sustained investment, evidence-based policy and strong partnerships are making a real difference to people's lives. I am pleased to confirm that in budget 2027, I have secured an additional €108 million for mental health services bringing annual funding to more than €1.65 billion. That represents a 7% increase in funding this year. Since I took up this office, funding for mental health services has increased by more than 61%. Budget 2027 builds on that sustained, incremental and ring-fenced recurring investment. It is not a one-off increase but another step in the sustained development of our mental health services. The allocation provides for staffing growth equivalent to 285 additional posts and specific new investment in priority services and programmes. It is not acceptable to me that ring-fenced posts for mental health funded in budget 2026 or budget 2027 would be delayed or suppressed by overspends elsewhere in the health service. I will be working with the Minister for Health to ensure there is very tight control of both these new 280 posts and posts funded for this year. We will be clawing back the funding not spent on the 300 ring-fenced posts for this year combining it with the additional funding for this year, holding it centrally nationally and only distributing it to regions as posts are actually filled...

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