People in their thousands are presenting to emergency departments in mental health crises because of the lack of mental health care in our communities. If they are lucky enough to be seen in emergency departments, they are then referred back into the community for treatment. An average of 4,500 people are so referred every year. There are huge vacancies in our community mental health services. I will give the example of my area of Clondalkin.

I only got this response a few days ago. We have vacancies for one area director of nursing, two clinical nurse managers, three clinical nurse specialists, two community mental health nurses, one advanced nurse practitioner and five staff nurses. Does the Tánaiste think this level of vacancy is acceptable? What will he do about it?

I thank the Deputy for his question. There are 12,500 whole-time equivalents working in mental health the length and breadth of the country. There has been a significant increase in the past three and a half years. In relation to the clinical programmes, for example, an additional €5.6 million has been allocated nationally and we saw recruitment of 120 staff in the past three and a half years. We do have challenges in relation to populating some of our 75 CAMHS teams. I was delighted in the past three weeks to secure an additional €10 million for youth mental health-----

These are adults.

-----specifically to increase the workforce. We will continue to do that. Last year we recruited heavily in mental health - with over 390 people recruited - and we will continue to do that. There are gaps and I am trying to address them at the moment.