The annual conference of the Psychiatric Nurses Association has been told that retirements have resulted in horrendous problems in maintaining the country's mental health services.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, PNA General Secretary Des Kavanagh said that more than a quarter of the nursing workforce has been lost in the last few years.
He said this is affecting specialist services, which in some cases have disappeared completely.
"In Roscommon, family therapy is totally gone, addiction services are halved, cognitive behavioural therapy, I think, has reduced by one quarter, and that's just one county alone," Mr Kavanagh said.
"If we look to other parts of the country there are services that have closed down because we cannot provide the nursing staff to maintain them. We're amalgamating units, we're trying to maintain a service with a quarter less staff and it is virtually impossible to do it. The reality is that the community is suffering."
Mr Kavanagh said that while Minister of State Kathleen Lynch will tell them that an extra €35m will be spent on mental health services this year, the spend will actually be down €40m on last year.
Nevertheless he said that the minister "is certainly fighting their corner in Government to get money for some staff."
He said that Ireland fairs poorly in terms of its spend on mental health services when compared with other countries.
"We are now down somewhere near 4.5% of the health budget being spent on mental health, compared with 12% in the UK and most of the Western World."
