The Minister for Mental Health says staff shortages are putting pressure on services.

The General Secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association Des Kavanagh yesterday said we are falling short in many areas - and more work needs to be done by the department.

He told Newstalk Lunchtime, "people in our prisons with serious mental disorder increased from 3% to 8% of prisoners, [which] is frightening. It implies that effectively we've closed our mental hospitals and transferred people who normally would have been there into prison..."

"I think the verbal commitment that we have received from the minister has not been matched in reality by the practice on the ground," he added.

Minister Kathleen Lynch joined Newstalk Lunchtime today to discuss the topic of mental health services. She says the money is there to pay for extra staff, but there are difficulties recruiting:

Minister Lynch started by discussing an accusation that there is €68 million in a budget that was allocated for mental health services that hasn't been spent. 

"There's a very good reason why it hasn't been spent. We are probably the only sector in the Health Department that has money to recruit, but we are having serious difficulties recruiting," she told Jonathan.

She also discussed the issue of emergency departments, saying "when I put it to those who are experts in the area... that there shouldn't be a need for people with mental health difficulties to be going through an A&E department... when I put that to them they say there is a very logical reason for that. I have to accept what they are saying to me," she explained, stressing that "I don't have responsibility for nor control of what happens in A&Es."

On the subject of her term in office, she said, "I'm happy with what I've done. I think what we can be satisfied with is that we've changed the conversation around mental health... I'm equally satisfied that the money we have gotten year on year has been a significant achievement.

"What I'm not happy about is the fact that we still haven't managed to convince people that to work within the psychiatric services and mental health in general is actually a good career option," she added.

You can listen back to the full interview with Kathleen Lynch below: