Irish Advocacy Network (IAN), formed 1999, was sanctioned to provide services by Minister for Health and Children. IAN is a service user-led organisation working independently and in partnership with mental health services, encouraging service users to speak, speak out and take control of their lives. It is one of only two organisations in the mental health sector receiving support under Section 39 status. Section 39 states that:
“The Executive may, subject to any directions given by the Minister under section 10 and on such terms and conditions as it sees fit to impose, give assistance to any person or body that provides or proposes to provide a service similar or ancillary to a service that the Executive may provide.
The other organisation to receive Section 39 funding is GROW, which is the longest standing mental health peer support network in the country. GROW came to Ireland in October 1969. It got its first health service funding in 1981 from the Cork Health Board.