Mental Health Reform welcomes several positive developments for people accessing and working in mental health services as part of Budget 2026. The Government’s announcement that the total allocation for mental health will reach almost €1.6 billion represents a continued commitment to strengthening Ireland’s mental health system and marks the sixth consecutive year of increased investment.
While the headline figure of €1.6 billion is welcome, transparency in budgetary reporting remains essential. The detailed breakdown of this allocation has not yet been published, following changes to the structure of the overall Health Budget. Mental Health Reform urges the Government to provide a comprehensive and accessible breakdown of the mental health allocation as soon as possible to ensure accountability and enable stakeholders to track progress against national policy commitments.
We acknowledge the Government’s continued commitment to mental health in its first Budget, including the significant announcement that 300 additional whole-time-equivalent staff will be recruited into mental health services in 2026. This represents 9% of the total projected growth in health service staffing next year and reflects a strong recognition of the need to build capacity across the sector.
We strongly welcome the Government’s focus on crisis supports and suicide reduction initiatives, alongside increased investment in community and voluntary organisations delivering these vital services – key priorities outlined in our Pre-Budget Submissions. The allocation of funding for 12 new Suicide Crisis Assessment Nurses (SCAN), three Crisis Resolution Services with associated Solace Cafés, and a dedicated crisis response pathway for children and young people will provide essential supports to individuals experiencing acute distress.
We also commend the promised investment in talk therapies, digital mental health, and peer support, all critical components of a modern mental health system. In addition, we are very pleased to see the commitments to increase investment in early intervention services, youth mental health, and the expansion of National Clinical Programmes, which align closely with the recommendations we put forward in our Pre-Budget Submission.
While the funding for additional perinatal mental health consultants is very welcome, we continue to call for the urgent establishment of a National Mother & Baby Unit – a key Programme for Government commitment that remains outstanding and which we hope to see included in the upcoming HSE Capital Plan. A Mother & Baby Unit is vital to ensuring mothers receive specialised mental health care without being separated from their infants during recovery, supporting both maternal recovery and the critical early parent-child bond.
We are disappointed that Budget 2026 made no progress toward a commitment to multi-annual funding for the community and voluntary sector. Such funding is essential to ensure the sustainability and long-term planning of the important services these organisations provide. We are also disappointed that the Budget included no provision for a cost of disability payment, a measure we strongly advocated for in our Pre-Budget Submission to the Department of Social Protection. As outlined in the Cost of Disability Report, the average additional annual cost of living with a mental health difficulty was €13,251 – a figure that does not reflect inflationary pressures since 2021.
In our “Pay the Bill” Pre-Budget Campaign, we called for at least an additional €200 million to be allocated to mental health services – an amount that would have brought funding to approximately 6.5% of last year’s overall health budget. Given the increase in the total health budget in Budget 2026, an even higher mental health funding figure is now required to reach that percentage. It is absolutely essential that the proportion of the overall health budget allocated to mental health increases beyond previous years to place Ireland firmly on the trajectory toward meeting the Sláintecare commitment of 10% by 2030.
Mental Health Reform will continue to closely monitor Budget 2026 developments as further details emerge and will communicate these updates to our membership and wider stakeholder network. We wish to acknowledge and thank the Minister of State for Mental Health, Mary Butler, and her team for their continued leadership and dedication. Mental health funding has increased by more than 50% since the Minister’s appointment in 2020, and we commend the sustained efforts made to secure this year’s investment in a challenging fiscal environment.