It is unacceptable that mental health funds are being used to ‘prop up' other parts of the health service, Mental Health Reform (MHR) has said.

This week, it emerged that €12 million of this year's mental health budget is being diverted to other parts of the health service.

MHR promotes improved mental health services and is made up of over 50 organisations working in this area. It described this diversion of funds as unacceptable and intolerable.

"Ring-fenced funding for mental health should not be viewed as a pot of money to prop up other areas of the health service. It doesn't show parity of esteem between mental and physical health and proves that we still have a struggle on our hands to ensure mental health is taken seriously and given the priority it deserves," commented MHR director, Dr Shari McDaid.

It is understood that the money in question had been set aside for the recruitment of staff, but was not spent, so the decision was taken to divert these funds.

Dr McDaid noted that while other areas of the health service received additional funding this year to deal with the pressures being placed on them, mental health received no additional funding.

"And now we learn that the funds that were to be ring-fenced for new developments in mental health are to be diverted to other areas. The 2016 HSE Service Plan provides additional funding for a number of areas such as acute hospitals, disability and primary care to deal with unfunded costs brought forward from 2015, but there is no such additional funding for mental health," she pointed out.

She highlighted that the area of mental health only has 75% of required staffing that is recommended in the national mental health policy, A Vision for Change, which was published 10 years ago.

"There are some areas of the mental health service which have been largely ignored, such as the mental health of homeless people, of people with intellectual disability, and maternal mental health. There is not the spare capacity within mental health services to take care of over-runs in other parts of the health service," Dr McDaid added.