Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for her comments on my green ribbon. I always wear it proudly. I travelled to Cork a couple of weeks ago to launch the green ribbon campaign with the Lord Mayor of Cork, Mr. Colm Kelleher. That was a great visit. In today's post, I got 20 lovely green ribbon face masks. I was trying to decide how to give them out so I have decided to be like Ryan Tubridy, with one for everyone in the audience and will give one to each member of this committee. I think that is the best way to distribute them. I have a green ribbon for every Oireachtas Member, in both the Dáil and Seanad but members of this committee will get the face masks.

See Change Ireland has organised an event on 15 September called "Feelings of Exclusion", details of which are online. I want to commend members of See Change Ireland for all the work they do on stigma. One of the positive effects of the Covid-19 pandemic over the last 12 to 18 months is the fact that we are speaking about our mental health, mental illness, well-being, anxiety, distress, depression and so on. It is great to see that.

The project at Portrane was almost complete when I took up my post. A huge amount of work was done on it by my predecessors over many years, at a cost of €200 million. It is the most up-to-date and state-of-the art hospital to be found in Europe. We are looking forward to getting it open as soon as possible so that the residents of the Central Mental Hospital will be able to transfer there, safely and securely, and be able to enjoy the benefits of the facility. I have visited Portrane and it is absolutely spectacular. I have no doubt that the ten-bed unit for CAMHS and the 20-bed unit for female residents will result in much better quality support for residents. We are pulling out all of the stops on this. Mr. Hempenstall is working really hard to get this over the line and opened as soon as possible. We will not lose an hour on it if we can possibly do it but there are restrictions with which we must deal.

I work very closely with the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, particularly on the well-being and keeping well side of things. Last week we met with representatives of men's sheds, or shedders as they are called, throughout Ireland. We have more men's sheds in Ireland per capitathan any other country in the world. We have 450 men's sheds and the model is fantastic. I am really looking forward to 20 September, which is only a short week away, when active retirement groups, bridge clubs, knitting clubs, card groups and so on will be able to go back indoors and meet again indoors which is important as we face into the winter.

Reconnecting in society is so close that we can almost touch it. Reconnecting will support people, in particular those who have been at home a great deal or in isolation. People might be living on the high street or have neighbours on either side and it can still be the loneliest day for them because they have not talked to anyone.

Regarding ehealth, I do not have the percentages with me, but perhaps we will be able to get the answers for the Senator in a written reply. Would that be okay? She asked what percentage of the funding provided was spent on ehealth.