Ireland is the third largest island in Europe and the twentieth largest island in the world, with an area of 86 576 km2; it has a total population of slightly under 6 million. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and to the west of Great Britain. The Republic of Ireland covers five-sixths of the island; Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, is in the north-east. Twenty-six of the 32 counties are in the Republic of Ireland, which has a population of 4.2 million, and its capital is Dublin. The other six counties are in Northern Ireland, which has a population of 1.75 million, and its capital is Belfast. In 1973 both parts of Ireland joined the European Economic Community. This article looks at psychiatry in the Republic of Ireland.

Health spending and organisation

The Health Service Executive (HSE) is responsible for managing and delivering health and personal social services in the Republic of Ireland. It is the largest employer in the state. The €12.4 billion budget in 2006 was the largest of any public sector organisation (Health Service Executive, 2008). In Ireland, nearly 80% of health spending is funded by government revenues, above the average of 73% among member states of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 2001, public spending accounted for roughly 78% of all money spent on healthcare. Spending has been increasing in recent years on a per capita basis but is lower as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) (7.1%) or gross national product (GNP) (8.5%) than the OECD average (8.9%) (Health Research Board, 2008). The 2004 Health Strategy estimated that Ireland's health spending per capita in 2004 was US$2596 and thus slightly above the average in the rest of the European Union (EU) (US$2550) (Health Research Board, 2008).

In Ireland, as in the UK, general practitioners (GPs) act as gatekeepers of the psychiatric services and specialists can generally be approached only through GPs.