Dr. Aileen Tierney:

Young men are a particular group that I am very concerned about. They are quite isolated and so the risk of suicide is higher. For me, it relates to inequality in terms of education and employment, but some of it is historical. When parents have had poor experiences of education they are less likely to be positive about education.

Deputy Corcoran Kennedy is looking for specific projects. Young men I have met in the Traveller community often marry younger and want to move into employment earlier. The kinds of training programmes she is talking about that would be of particular interest to young men would have to have a remuneration component. The programmes would have to help them to move away from potential addiction trajectories, lack of employment or further discrimination, which impact on their self-esteem and their views of themselves.

I am sure it is possible to develop some schemes. Last week I heard someone speak about the law on horse ownership. If the legislation was more culturally sensitive some of the young men might be interested. In terms of specific projects, it might be useful to hear from young men on what they think might be helpful to them. I see them as a group that has great difficulty in accessing mental health services.

From the settled population 20 or 30 years ago, we saw that women access services first. We are still seeing that. To make services accessible for young Traveller men, there may need to be gender-based services and the possibility of gaining access to services in which male therapists and counsellors are available.