Mr. Rory Fitzgerald:

I thank the Deputy. Schools is a passion of mine in that I have run a number of workshops in the south east in the past seven or eight years where we work with a drama company. That introduces the subject. The children are very open. We deal with 15-year-olds, 16-year-olds in transition year up to the leaving certificate class. Schools are very welcoming. That would be a workshop for approximately an hour and a half and we would have a mental health expert with us on the panel. It helps because a kid might hear something and five years down the road, when he or she is struggling, say there is help to be got wherever. Unfortunately, there is a cost to it. It probably costs a tenner a kid to run those workshops. Within our funding in local branches, we do not have access to those funds. We have to find them elsewhere. It is something I would like to see developed nationally, particularly in third-level colleges. The third-level colleges is a key area as well where we need to be more visible. Our challenge is that we have 1,600 volunteers in the Republic and we would struggle to run a workshop in every school in the country.

One of our asks is for members of the general public to join, and we ask public representatives at all times to encourage people to join us, because the more volunteers that we have then the more we can do. The Deputy is right. From my experience of working in schools I know that we are getting through to people because a feedback sheet is completed after a workshop and most of the comments are positive. One child in Enniscorthy wrote, "I now know more about my mental health than I did an hour and half ago". Even though mental health is a subject that is all over the place one still needs a direct initiative. We have found that drama engages students and we use a professionally written script. Yes, we do need to put funds into those areas.