The Irish College of Psychiatrists is seriously concerned that funding allocated for Mental Health is being reallocated to acute and other services. This matter was raised with Minister Tim O’Malley at a recent meeting and in a letter to Health Board CEOs.

"Mental Health Services are already seriously under funded, so the practice of reallocating funds to other areas of Health Services exasperates the funding difficulties", Dr. Kate Ganter, Chairperson of the Irish College said in a letter to the Health Board.

She went on to say, "We are urging you to ringfence mental health funding in order to ensure that much needed funds are only used for the benefit of our patient services."

"We are aware that in some instances there have been, or it is planned, that the proceeds from the sale of lands surrounding old psychiatric institutions is being used to fund other projects unrelated to Mental Health. I would be grateful if you would forward us the relevant information regarding these sales on an itemised basis - and indicate where the proceeds have been utilised."

The Irish College of Psychiatrists has previously drawn attention to the fact that funding of the Psychiatric Services has been on a relative downward curve for several years. The percentage of funding in relation to other medical areas has decreased – and the percentage increase annually is the lowest for medical specialities. These figures are alarming when one considers that community psychiatry was expected to attract a larger spend than institutional care. This clearly has not happened – and our psychiatric services are accordingly deficient.