Mr. Niall Mulligan:

The Deputy is correct about the online chat. The Samaritans has piloted it. As the Deputy knows, the Samaritans is part of a wider organisation across the UK and Ireland. There have been a number of online chat pilots in the UK. Three branches in Northern Ireland have signed up to online chat as well, if I am correct. It is has been a success. We have not yet introduced in the Republic of Ireland. We are in the process of doing that. There are two main challenges. The first is the technology side but we are on top of that. It is in our work plan. We had hoped to have it in place before the end of this year. However, other things have taken precedence, certainly from a Covid-19 perspective. The second is a resource issue in terms of volunteer time. Again, there has been pressure on us. As mentioned earlier, there is pressure on our volunteers.

Having said that, it is key to provide additional supports particularly to younger people, but also to other groups of people. We met with the Irish Deaf Society, IDS, a year ago. It would be a crucial area of support for that particular group of individuals. It opens the for door us to be more accessible to as many people as possible. It is a plan.