Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a very important meeting. I had the opportunity to hear the start of Mr. Mulligan's opening statement which was absolutely fantastic. I welcome Mr. Mulligan, Mr. Fitzgerald and Ms Stack from the Samaritans. It is an honour to meet them and to know what they and their volunteers have done over the past 18 months. It is has been incredible. It is incredible also to think that they provide this service with only 12 core staff.

I wish to highlight some of the areas and ask a couple of questions. The witnesses mentioned that they are extremely busy from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. Although they run a 24-hour service, these are the busiest hours. They also take calls through other helplines - in other words, they offer their number to other groups, so that people may contact them after other groups' 6 p.m. finish time. I would be interested to hear a little more about that. They mentioned 2,000 volunteers but Covid-19 caused a reduction in the numbers they were able to access. Is there anything we can do to help to support them in terms of a recruitment campaign or people becoming involved as volunteers? One of my key questions is on how we support them going forward.

I liked what the witnesses said about providing a service for people abroad. That was a wonderful thing to do, particularly when so many Irish people - the diaspora abroad - who have family in Ireland were not able to return home and may have been going through very difficult times, being isolated abroad and feeling very far from home.

At least for many of us here, even though we were isolated on our own, we knew we were very close to loved ones, which meant a lot.

With regard to rural areas, I am representing Roscommon and Galway, which is very much a rural regional area. The witnesses spoke about being able to deliver online engagement and how important that was. I always presumed it was over the phone. Do the Samaritans offer face-to-face online services or was that more for webinar and training sessions for its volunteers and staff?

Those are my queries. I thank the witnesses. Through the HSE and everything else, our main question is how we can look to support the Samaritans, even in terms of recruitment and campaigns for volunteers. I am very interested in that. Go raibh mile maith agaibh.