Ms Caroline O'Sullivan:

I wanted to speak at the end because the Deputy's questions hit home. As for whether we are on the right track, I think we are. Listening to everybody on this side of the table speak of the recommendations for the future and the cross-party recognition that this is an issue, I believe we have to be on the right track and we must learn from that.

On the "13 Reasons Why" television programme, I agree with the point that education is very important. Rather than educating children around reasons others may take this step, we need to educate children on how to cope, inform them of who to go to if they have a worry and point out to them who the one good adult in their life is. If they cannot go to their mum, dad or youth worker, who can they go to? It is a matter of showing children the way. We can do that in primary schools but the biggest educator of children are parents in the home.

The unconditional love that that child feels is one of the key components of having a resilient child. The second key area of being resilient is that the child knows that he or she can go to his or her parents or grandparents and talk to them if he or she has an issue. The final key area is the fact that children will learn that they can cope, deal with adversities and can come out the other side. That is where one has resilient children. The language has changed in this country. We are talking about coping capacity and about resilience. We are on the right path but we have such a crisis now and that can be clearly seen in terms of the CAMHS waiting lists. That has to change. We need a review of all the resources within CAMHS to see what disciplines are the worst hit so that we can get those children seen to.

Prevention is always better than cure. Listening to children is the very first step and that is why Childline is there 24 hours and the crisis text line is there 24 hours. We have to let our children know about these services and we will do our part to make sure children look at what support systems they have.