Sinn Féin has pledged to recruit 2,000 additional mental health staff and increase the number of Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Community Mental Health teams if in government.

The party has also promised make the delivery of 24/7 crisis services and the provision of more round the clock mental health nurses in certain areas a priority.

Party leader Mary Lou McDonald made the commitment during a visit to a youth centre in the constituency of Cork East this morning, with the party's spokesperson on mental health and outgoing TD for the area Pat Buckley.

Sinn Féin's Mental Health policy promises to provide free universal counseling services with a GP referral, improve Primary Care counseling services and develop a plan to address local suicide epidemics.

It would fund and implement outstanding reforms that were proposed by the Vision for Change document in 2006.

In the area of drugs and addiction it is promising to make a minister responsible for this area, investing €12 million in drugs and alcohol strategies and establishing drug free zones within a 300m radius of schools.

Meanwhile, Ms McDonald has said her party will not enter into a confidence and supply arrangement with Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil.

She also denied that Sinn Féin is engaging in auction politics.