Health Minister Leo Varadkar has come under fire for transferring 35 million euro in mental health funding, to other services in the system.

The minister says the money was for the recruitment of over 15 hundred new mental health staff - but the positions couldn't be filled in time.

Leo Varadkar says the money will be returned to the Mental Health budget for 2017.

But campaigners say the money should have been retained by mental health services, which are already badly stretched.

In a prepared speech for the Dáil, he says the money was earmarked to provide an extra 1,550 staff for mental health but as these couldn't all be filled from January 1st, the savings are going to be transferred elsewhere.

The minister never got to deliver the crucial lines

"The manner in which this challenge will be met has been a matter of public commentary in recent days with inaccurate suggestions of a recent transfer of funding from the mental health budget.

I want to make it clear that mental health services will be developed further this year to a full year cost of €35million and this amount will be fully provided for in the 2017 base budget for health. The key task is to ensure that we get best value from this investment so that patients can benefit to the greatest extent possible."

Director of Mental Health Reform Shari McDaid says the extra staff would have helped some of the most vulnerable in society: