Mary Butler: Funding Specialist Nurses for Mental Health

Thank you László Comhairle. I am pleased to join the Minister for Health today in marking International Nurses Day and in recognising the extraordinary contribution nurses make to our health service and to our society. I was pleased also as Chief Whip on the request from Deputy Devane who wanted these statements held. I was pleased to be able to put them into the agenda because I believe it's really important that we acknowledge the fabulous work that nurses do. As the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, I would like to make special mention of the role of mental health nurses in the Irish health service. Mental health nurses look after some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. They support individuals at moments of acute distress, at points of recovery and throughout long-term engagement with services. Their work, like that of all nurses and midwives, is grounded in clinical expertise, therapeutic relationships and sustained commitment to person-centred care. They are often the consistent presence for people navigating complex mental health needs, building trust over time and supporting continuity of care across services. Nursing roles today are carried out in a context of significant and evolving demand. Mental health needs in our society are increasingly complex. Services are multidisciplinary and care pathways extend well beyond traditional clinical settings. Mental health nurses are essential to navigating and responding to these challenges. I have seen first-hand how nurses adapt practice, they support innovation and they help to shape how modern mental health services are delivered. I'm also aware how lucky we are in Ireland to train mental health nurses at undergraduate level. Across the EU, most countries do not train mental health nurses as a separate undergraduate field. Every mental health nurse who graduated last year in Ireland were offered a position here and it's really important to acknowledge that. The role of the mental health nurse has evolved significantly in recent years. We are seeing clinical leadership and a growing level of specialisation across the workforce, reflecting both the complexity of need within services and the expertise required to meet it. Mental health nurses work across a broad range of advanced and specialist roles, contributing not only to direct care but also to assessment, care coordination, prescribing governance and service development. I want to pay a special shout out to mental health nurses who work across psychiatry of later life. They do an amazing job supporting older people at a time in their life when all they want to do is stay at home to live their best lives in their own community. The fact, Minister, that they actually come to the House to support people who might have an enduring mental health condition or might be struggling with anxiety or distress, I've seen it firsthand myself and I can't pay enough tribute to them for the work they do. It's their kindness and their understanding of the client that they are seeing. We see this also in the delivery of services such as the National Clinical Programme for Suicide Ideation and Self-Harm, where experienced and skilled nurses work in our emergency departments to respond in real time and provide support to people in severe distress. While we are continuing to expand crisis alternatives in the community, we know people in distress will always present to hospital for emergency care. In responding to this reality, I believe the solution is to establish specialist nursing teams in our emergency departments, staffed by advanced nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists working out of hours to support the non-consultant hospital doctor on duty and the consultant on call. I have funded these new teams for all model 4 hospitals in budget 2026 and I will do the same for model 3 hospitals in the next two budgets. This is further recognition of the role nursing can play in expanding the scope of how we provide mental health services and we utilise the extensive skills and the experience of our nursing workforce. Similarly, the Suicide Crisis Assessment Nurse, known as SCAN nurses, the SCAN service, is another example of how our nurses go above and beyond for their patients' wellbeing. SCAN is a key component of national suicide prevention and crisis response efforts. It provides a timely response to requests from GPs for the assessment of people experiencing suicidal crisis, with assessments often taking place in primary care or community settings. The SCAN service provides a short-term, specialist, community-based clinical response for individuals presenting with suicidal ideation or self-harm that does not require acute hospital admission. As of 2025, there are 33 funded SCAN clinical nurse specialist posts for adults operating across five counties, alongside three under-18 SCAN services. Funding provided in budget 2026 supports expansion to a total of 45 posts nationally, through the allocation of six new SCAN teams for Kerry, Limerick, Galway, Kildare, Dublin, South City, and an under-18 team for Lindara in West Dublin, Kildare. An under-18 SCAN service commenced in Donegal in July 2025. As Minister Karen MacNeill said, this Government is fully committed to facilitating nurses to continue to work to the top of their licence, supporting advanced and specialist pathways not only to strengthen services, but it also supports retention, professional autonomy, and leadership within the workforce. These developments are essential to building a sustainable mental health system that can meet current and future demand. It is important to acknowledge the realities of nursing in the mental health sector, and indeed nurses and midwives across all sectors. Many work in settings that are highly demanding, emotionally complex, and at times high risk. We are aware that these pressures can contribute to reduced job satisfaction, stress, burnout, and challenges with staff retention. My colleague referred to the recent INMO survey highlighting high levels of burnout, stress and exposure to growing levels of violence and aggression at work. The WHO men's survey in 2025 found similar results across the European region. These issues are not unique to Ireland, or indeed nursing. This is a reality globally for the health and social care workforce. However, nurses, as the largest workforce, can be disproportionately affected, as referenced by Minister Carl MacNeill. The increased awareness of these issues has, however, identified evidence-based policy actions to assist in addressing them. I am pleased that in Ireland the Government is supporting many of these actions. The Minister set out the recent and ongoing policy responses, and it does not surprise me that nursing in Ireland is a global leader in some. This Government will continue to invest in our nursing workforce. Our commitment to this is reflected in our approach to workforce planning. All recent graduates, as I said, psychiatric nurse programmes have been offered posts within our health service. This is a clear statement of the value placed on mental health nursing and the recognition of its importance to the delivery of mental health care nationwide. Last can call, International Nurses Day is an important opportunity to recognise the unwavering professionalism, compassion and expertise that nurses bring to every aspect of our health service. This is evident in the area of mental health, where the training enables skill, empathy and resilience that makes a profound difference to the lives of individuals and families every day. I want to restate my deepest appreciation for our nursing workforce and to reaffirm my commitment to strengthening the profession through an ongoing focus on safe staffing, professional support, leadership and working conditions. When we support and empower our nurses, particularly those working on the front line of mental health care, we strengthen our entire health system. We improve outcomes for patients and service users across the country. Mental health nurses also play a critical role in supporting effective integration across physical, psychological and social services. This is essential to ensure continuity, improve outcomes and support holistic recovery for patients. This is really important across CAMHS teams, where you have multidisciplinary teams and you have the clinical nurse specialist embedded in the team and providing a huge amount of effective support and reaching out to all the various definitions to make sure that the young person receives the care that they need. I believe, together, mental health nurses working in partnership with colleagues across all fields of nursing strengthen integrated care, ensuring that every patient receives holistic, compassionate and seamless support through their health journey. I welcome the contributions of my fellow deputies, and I hope they will join me in once again expressing our sincere gratitude for the dedication, courage and humanity that nurses demonstrate day in and day out. Just before I conclude, I want to touch on my previous role as Minister for Older People and the phenomenal work that public health nurses do in communities every day of the week, whether it is supporting a mother with a new baby or supporting people at their end of life, or whether it is supporting people just to live their very best life. They play a phenomenal role in the community. I know we have been challenged in some areas of Dublin, for example, in recruiting public health nurses into areas, but I fervently believe, as somebody rooted in my own community, the importance of public health nurses, especially older people when they are receiving the supports of home care, day care, meals on wheels, to know that the public health nurse is there at a time when they might need, for example, coming home from hospital, they might need a hospital bed or they might need some kind of physical support, as well as the clinical support that we provide to support older people to age well in their own community. We are very lucky in Ireland of the calibre of nurses we have, whether it is public health nurses, whether it is nurses that are supporting you at the end of life, whether it is nurses that are supporting you when you go into hospital, whether it is the nurse in your GP service. They are the backbone of health all over the country, and I am very proud to salute them here today. Thank you.