Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 November 2025
563. Deputy Peter Roche asked the Minister for Health her Department's plans to expand access to mental health services for young people, including school-based supports and early intervention programmes; whether consideration has been given to strengthening community mental health teams in rural areas; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [64640/25]
View answerIt is a priority for me, and for Government, to ensure that children who need services can access them and access them on time. This is in line with our national mental health policy Sharing the Vision, our suicide reduction strategy Connecting for Life, and the HSE Annual Service Plan 2025.
Year-on-year funding for mental health services increased from €1.3 billion announced in Budget 2024 to €1.5 billion in 2025 to nearly €1.6 billion in 2026. For context, this is an annual increase in funding of over 5%, and funding since I took up this office has increased by over 51%.
Specifically in relation to youth mental health, this year’s budget provided funding for new early intervention youth mental health services, funding to support a digital single point of access for youth mental health services, an additional specialist CAMHS eating disorders team, two new Mental Health of Intellectual Disabilities teams for children, and five new mental health Discovery Colleges for young people.
CAMHS nationally receives approximately €180 million annually, with a further €127 million provided to NGOs, many of which focus on youth mental health. Under Budget 2025, an additional €2.9 million has supported CAMHS to increase core staffing, develop a new CAMHS Emergency Liaison Service and expand CAMHS Hubs to improve crisis cover for services.
CAMHS nationally has also initiated a targeted campaign to reduce waiting lists across all of its CAMHS teams following the receipt of €3 million waiting list initiative funding from the National Child and Youth Mental Health Office for 2025.
CAMHS is a secondary care specialist service for those aged up to 18 years, who have a moderate to severe mental health difficulty. Access to CAMHS is on the basis of prioritised clinical assessment, in line with the CAMHS Operational Guidelines which are available on the HSE website. All referrals to CAMHS are assessed by a multidisciplinary team. Approximately 2% of the population require support from this specialist service with over 90% of mental health needs requiring treatment in a primary care setting.
I established the National Office for Child and Youth Mental Health in the HSE to improve leadership and all aspects of care across youth mental health. The Office published its new Youth Mental Health Action Plan in February last. This ambitious plan for comprehensive reform across all youth mental health services, including the specialist CAMHS service, will deliver services which are safer, effective, easier to access and which offers appropriate support at all levels when needed.
The three-year Plan sets out a clear roadmap for the Department and HSE to ensure children and families have equitable and timely access to high-quality mental health care, including better links with Primary Care and Disability Services, and greater use of e-mental health responses. My aim is that services will be better connected and easier to navigate, with increased focus on the rights of young people and their families. The development of a Single Point of Access for all child and youth mental health referrals in partnership with disabilities, primary care, and voluntary and statutory agencies is a key priority within the new Action Plan.
I recently commenced a series of visits to all HSE Regional Health Areas to meet with the Regional Executive Officers and their staff to focus on improvements to all aspects of Youth Mental Health care, to identify areas where increased activity is needed, and also areas of innovative and positive service delivery. This includes improving access and reducing CAMHS waiting lists particularly for those waiting over 12 months. I have stressed also, the importance of filling all approved posts for each CAMHS team to ensure the effective delivery of services.
With regard to expanding access to school based supports and early intervention programmes, recommendation 10 of Sharing the Vision states that a protocol should be developed between the Department of Education and Skills and the HSE on the liaison process that should be in place between primary/post-primary schools, mental health services and supports such as NEPS, GPs, primary care services and specialist mental health services. This is needed to facilitate referral pathways to local services and signposting to such services, as necessary.
A Working Group was established to progress recommendation 10 and improve liaison processes and information sharing between schools and mental health services. The Working Group met for the first time in January 2022 until it completed its work in December 2024. The Department of Education are currently working with the HSE to implement the protocol.
Furthermore, Stronger Together is the first mental health promotion plan to be published by the HSE and highlights their commitment to integrating the promotion of mental health and wellbeing across our health services, in collaboration with external partners. The plan is called Stronger Together because it is recognised that promoting positive mental health is not the work of one organisation or sector.
Schools and other educational settings provide a powerful opportunity to reach young people, while the educational environment provides children and young people with the potential to promote their psychological, social, and physical health. There is substantial evidence, backed up by several reviews of this evidence, that mental health promotion programmes in schools, when implemented effectively, can produce long-term benefits for young people, including emotional and social functioning and improved academic performance.
The HSE Health and Wellbeing Education Programme collaborates with the Department of Education to support schools to promote social and emotional wellbeing, as well as physical activity and healthy eating in school, in line with the Department of Education’s Wellbeing Framework for Practice (2019).
At primary and post-primary levels, there are a range of evidence-based mental health promotion programmes being delivered in schools, including but not limited to:
• Zippy’s Friends which is a universal programme for children aged 5–8 years in primary school and is designed to promote their coping skills and emotional wellbeing.
• The Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Programme (TCM) which reduces conduct problems and promotes children's pro-social behaviour.
• MindOut is a 12-week social and emotional learning programme targeting Senior Cycle students in post-primary schools.
There are also a large number of innovative out-of-school youth programmes that enhance young people’s social and emotional skills and which show positive outcomes for young people, including improved self-esteem, social skills, reduced behavioural problems, and greater engagement in school and society. At third level, the National Student Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Framework (Higher Education Authority, 2020) and the Healthy Campus initiative are important framework documents, which set out priority areas for promoting mental health and wellbeing across third-level institutions.
I will continue to work closely with the HSE to ensure that all aspects of youth mental health care are improved over this year and beyond.
