Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Thomas McCann from the Traveller Counselling Service is in the Gallery today and will be appearing before this committee at its next meeting. Today is not the last word for any of our witnesses. We can turn our phones off but they cannot. I am really grateful to them all for their contributions. I know that it has been painful for them to share so many stories. As Senator Warfield said, the fact that so many people had to share their stories in order to be heard, is problematic.

Deputy Gino Kenny talked about a stark and grave crisis and the personal cost of sharing one's experiences of it. Our guests really have shared and we are more informed than ever as a result. It has been difficult to listen to the stories. It should be difficult to hear about these situations, which Mr. Reilly estimates have affected 30 people, although that is an underestimation because it does not include those who may have tried to take their own lives. There is a big mismatch between the scale of the problem on one side and the response and resources provided to tackle the problem on the other. That came across very clearly. We have been given a really good insight but there is more to be explored with regard to the root causes, as Ms Quilligan mentioned.

Our next session be on 8 October, when we will meet with the Traveller Counselling Service, a group from west Limerick, the Offaly Traveller Movement, the Galway Traveller Movement and Exchange House. We had a record number of submissions, which is a powerful indication in its own right. The powers that be will also be coming before the committee. We will be putting to them the questions our guests have asked. We will be meeting the Minister for Health and officials from his Department, HSE officials and Dr. Brian Keogh, an academic from Trinity College Dublin who is interested in these matters. We have also invited Senator Joan Freeman to appear because there were strong recommendations in the report of the Joint Committee on the Future of Mental Health Care about which we do not want to forget. It was hard enough for some of us around the table to get those recommendations included in the report and we want to ensure that they are not forgotten.

If our guests will accept us, we will be their allies. It is up to them to decide but those on the committee are allies and it is our intent to produce a report to be acted upon rather than another document which will be considered to have been full of broken and unfulfilled promises in ten years' time. I thank the members of the committee for their great attention and for the great questions they have asked.