HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE have attended a series of protests across the country, to demonstrate against cuts to mental health funding.

Several hundred attended the major protest outside Leinster House, after €12 million which had been earmarked for mental health funding was rediverted to other areas.

Health minister Leo Varadkar said the diverted funding was announced in the HSE's Service Plan late last year, as part of the €35 million which had been assigned for the recruitment of mental health professionals.

The money could not all be spent for this purpose in 2016, due to delays and difficulties in recruiting the necessary staff.

The low turnout at a mental health debate in the Dáil on Tuesday night - when photographs of a mostly empty chamber went viral - also proved to be a lightning rod for anger.

Mental health campaigner Conor Cusack says TDs need to speak out to make mental health a higher priority.

He said without their help, mental health would remain a taboo subject: