Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome both groups and thank them for their presentations. Given that Covid-19 has such a major impact on young people right across the board and from a very young age, it strikes me that one has to ask who is actually providing supports for children under 12 years of age. It is probably an issue to raise later with the HSE, and I will pursue that.

There is no doubt that the crisis has a huge impact on those young people in their teens and early 20s. The crisis has given rise to all kinds of questions about their future, restrictions with regard to meeting their friends have been imposed and they are subject to the same uncertainty and fear that we are all experiencing. In view of the fact that before the advent of Covid-19 there were long waiting lists for all mental health services for young people, one must wonder how we will cope as we come out of this pandemic. Has consideration been given to providing schools and college programmes as a way of reaching a wider cohort of young people?