Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 June 2026
519. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of providing universal counselling in primary care; and the number of whole-time equivalents this would require, in tabular form. [48670/26]
View answerAs part of HSE Mental Health Services, the National Counselling Service provides free counselling therapy to adults who experienced childhood abuse or neglect, or are former residents of a mother and baby home. They also provide counselling to those with medical cards, through the Counselling in Primary Care service (CiPC). Outside of this, the HSE also funds many community partners to provide counselling and related services on its behalf. This is an area I have prioritised in recent Budgets, including €1m in Budget 2026 for a new talking therapies fund for providing Community Therapy Services.
There is a strong evidence base for the clinical effectiveness of CiPC, as demonstrated by Changing Lives for the Better: A National Evaluation of the Counselling in Primary Care (CIPC) Service (2022). This was the first national evaluation of the service and analysed data collected across all HSE Community Healthcare Organisations between 2015 and 2020, using routinely collected clinical outcome measures, follow-up data at 6 and 12 months, and feedback from clients and GPs. The evaluation found that 72% of clients improved or recovered following counselling, with large effect sizes, and that the proportion of clients assessed as being at risk reduced from 26.7% before counselling to 8.5% afterwards. Improvements in psychological distress, functioning and quality of life were largely maintained up to one year after counselling ended, and both clients and GPs reported high levels of satisfaction with the service, describing it as effective and beneficial.
I continue to invest in CiPC and other State funded counselling supports, including €2 million in funding announced in 2025 to provide access to a suite of new talk therapies and counselling supports specifically tailored for men. Access to the services began from September 2025 and to date over 2,000 men have been supported.
The funding is targeted at assisting with stigma reduction and to actively encourage men who otherwise would not usually avail of counselling to seek help with their mental health, to assist men in accessing mental health services, and to provide much-needed support for men experiencing a mental health crisis.
The HSE have recently established a therapeutic interventions service improvement programme board (TISIP). The programme board will provide consolidated leadership and governance for therapeutic interventions across the whole health system, with the aim of increasing capacity, and facilitating access to, high quality integrated supports and services for all who require them.
Specifically, the TISIP will provide
* The means to align efforts towards universally accessible talk therapies
* Greater consistency of approach and standards in service provision
* Stronger oversight and leadership
* Delivery models that are better integrated and coordinated from the outset, and can remove obstacles associated with levels of care if required and clinically appropriate
* Potential to further assess and develop partnership and multi-agency working, and shared-care arrangements
* A programme board to consider and review proposals for further investment in this area.
Future additional investment in counselling provision will be guided by a mapping of current services provided directly by the HSE or through organisations funded by HSE Mental Health and HSE NOSP. This investment will target identified gaps in service provision and take account of priority groups across the population.
As your question relates to operational matters, I have referred it to HSE for direct reply to you.
