Kathleen Lynch confident she will get extra funding for mental health

The Minister with responsibility for Mental Health said that she is confident that she can secure extra funding for services.

The group Mental Health Reform has launched its 'Invest in my Mental Health' campaign, setting out how an extra €35m is needed.

Minister Kathleen Lynch said that she will be fighting for the increased budget.

"It may come as a surprise now to Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin, and I'm saying this publicly but that is the aim," said Minister Lynch.

Minister Lynch admits there are still recruitment issues in the mental health services area.

But she says there's been substantial progress on waiting lists for young people.

"There is one issue in terms of child and adolescent mental health services which I was hugely concerned about and so was mental health reform, and we have managed to make progress on that.

"We have the waiting lists reduced considerably, it's reducing month-on-month, and if we go the way we're going, those waiting lists will no longer be there at the end of this year. We will have no one waiting longer than 12 months."