3531. Deputy William Aird asked the Minister for Health the steps being taken to increase mental health funding towards the Sláintecare commitment of 10% of the health budget by 2030; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56750/26]

The Government’s clear commitment to enhancing mental health services is shown by significant mental health funding increases in recent years. Budget 2026 saw a record allocation for mental health services of almost €1.6bn, up over 50% since I assumed the role of Minister for Mental Health in 2020.

The additional funding for current expenditure in Budget 2026 for the Health Vote is approximately €1.6 billion, bringing the total current allocation to €25.8 billion. This includes funding to maintain existing levels of service and for new service developments, including funding for the recruitment of 300 additional whole time equivalent staff within Mental Health in 2026.

This is the sixth year in a row in which the mental health budget has been increased. This increase in funding for mental health services represents a significant investment which will enable continued policy implementation and service improvement in line with our national mental health policy, Sharing the Vision, and our national suicide and self-harm reduction strategy Connecting for Life, across a broad continuum from mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention, through to specialist mental health services.

This year’s Budget provided the opportunity to focus on investing in crisis support and suicide prevention; youth mental health and CAMHS, and expanding the National Clinical Programmes.

The HSE National Service Plan 2026 sets out how the HSE will progress the Department’s priorities funded in Budget 2026, including key priorities to improve access to care, and to enhance quality and safety for those who use our services and to promote value for money more broadly for our significant investment.

The OECD document New Benchmark for Mental Health Systems: tackling the social and economic costs of mental ill-health, notes the methodological challenges that exist in collecting and comparing mental health spending across countries. One significant issue when trying to make comparisons is the scope of services that are included. Dementia services in Ireland, for example, do not fall under the mental health budget, while they do in other countries. In addition, some countries include only Government expenditure, while others include all expenditure in their estimates. These challenges make it exceptionally difficult to meaningfully compare Irish spending on mental health with that in other OECD countries.

Notwithstanding these methodological challenges, the OECD note a range of levels in mental health spending, from 4% to 15% of health spending, with only five countries spending more than 10% of their budget on mental health. Table 1.3 in the document www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2021/06/a-new-benchmark-for-mental-health-systems_c0cce868/4ed890f6-en.pdf provides a helpful comparison of spending across countries, colour coded to indicate comparative performance. Ireland is shown as having average performance in this table

In Ireland, Budget 2026 brought the mental health allocation to 6% of the total allocated health budget. While Sláintecare recommends that 10% of the health budget should be ringfenced for mental health, it should be noted that funding for mental health supports is dispersed across many areas of Government, and there is no single funding figure to reflect this. For example, the figure of just under €1.6 billion does not include funding for other parts of the health service that provide mental health supports, such as Primary Care, Disability services, liaison mental health in acute hospitals, some dual diagnosis (addiction and mental health) services, and mental health and well-being promotion.

It also does not include either spending by other Departments on services that incorporate psychological or mental health supports, such as Tusla, the Department of Education, the Prison and Probation Services, Youth Justice, or Social Protection.

The Deputy can rest assured that I will continue to significantly increase investment in mental health in the context of agreeing Budget 2027 and over the years beyond.