Sorca Clarke
Question:893. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Health the amount spent on youth mental health initiatives in each of the past five years; and the outcomes used to assess effectiveness. [45200/26]
View answerTuesday, 16 June 2026
Questions (893)
Written answers
Government has provided record funding of nearly €1.6 billion for mental health in 2026. CAMHS receives approximately €191 million annually, an increase of almost 40% over the past four years. A further €127 million is provided to NGOs, many of which focus on young people.
Under Budget 2026, €10 million was provided to enhance services including to develop a new crisis response pathway for children and young people; to open two new early intervention youth mental health Jigsaw services; to support the digital single point of access for youth mental health services; to develop five new mental health Discovery Colleges for young people; to resource an additional specialist CAMHS eating disorders team and two new Mental Health of Intellectual Disabilities teams for children; and to open an additional 18 CAMHS acute inpatient beds.
It 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 2026.
The development of CAMHS in Ireland is underpinned by the current national mental health policy 'Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone’ (2020-2030). Where the predecessor to Sharing the Vision, A Vision for Change 2006, was prescriptive on the composition of multi-disciplinary CAMHS teams, Sharing the Vision recognises greater flexibility to better meet evolving change in best practice and to ensure a more responsive approach to local needs and social circumstances that helps achieve improved recovery oriented outcomes.
The HSE is delivering an expansion of mental health service provision overall under Sharing the Vision. This involves analysis of skill mix requirements which in turn, requires comprehensive workforce planning. In addition, reforms under Sláintecare are centred on having sufficient capacity in the workforce and the appropriate configuration of staff and skill-mix, which are integral to improve service delivery, including that for Mental Health.
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 Youth Mental Health Action Plan in February 2025. This ambitious three year 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 development of a comprehensive recruitment and retention approach for child and youth mental health services is a key priority within the new Action Plan. This will be achieved through the identification of staffing needs based on local population mental health needs and associated deprivation levels. This work includes projections to inform a youth mental health workforce strategy and implementation plan and will result in more robust retention and focused recruitment strategies. Professional development and training opportunities will also mean teams can upskill to continue to provide excellent, person-centred services for children and young people.
I also undertook 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 stressed also the importance of filling all approved posts for each CAMHS team to ensure the effective delivery of services.
National community CAMHS staffing at December 2025 was 861.3 Whole Time Equivalents (WTEs), of which 730.7 were Clinical WTEs. As of April 2026, there were 747 Clinical WTE’s in CAMHS. I allocated an additional 94 posts to youth mental health initiatives under Budget 2026, across crisis response, early intervention, specialist services and inpatient care. Over 2024-2026 inclusive, 220 posts have been allocated to child and youth mental health, making up 34% of all new development posts allocated over this period. I have written to each Regional Executive Officer in the HSE to request that all CAMHS posts continues to be prioritised for recruitment.
I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond direct to the Deputy as soon as possible in relation to the detailed operational information sought.