Mental health staffing shortages
Martin highlights a Mental Health Commission report showing severe staff vacancies and criticises the diversion of ring-fenced mental-health funding; the Chair asks him to put his question.
The Taoiseach might read the Mental Health Commission report due today. It states the complete opposite to what the Taoiseach has been saying. The commission is disappointed about the health services. Across mental health hospitals and mental health care facilities, 44% of all posts are vacant.
Some €15 million of the €35 million ring-fenced was taken by the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly. The report reads as a damning indictment of what has been ongoing in mental health services. The first question I asked was whether the Taoiseach accepted the figures produced for last year's budget were false. He did not reply. What the director general is saying to the Secretary General of the Department of Health is telling when he says the decision is made elsewhere, without formal consultation with the HSE on the final proposals. We saw this last year and all of the problems emanate from the budget which was back-of-an-envelope stuff in terms of the budget negotiations. It is having telling consequences for patients. The Taoiseach mentioned 20 operations in the case of obesity-----
