Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the guests from all the institutions who have come in to show that mental health is so crucial. It is fantastic. I am on the mental health committee, which is a subcommittee of the health committee in the Oireachtas, and it is the first time this committee has been put in place. We have had an opportunity to hear from the educational side.

I appreciate that the bullying report by the education committee has been mentioned. That was one of the first reports it did. It is crucial to tackle the behaviours and attitudes around bullying. We know DCU has the UNESCO chair, which has been phenomenal, and it is rolling out courses for secondary schools, but we need more around that, in all walks of life. Bullying does not just happen in one part of life. It happens at all times and in all areas.

I have a number of points from the presentations on some of the things that came across me. First, on anxiety and stress, students who have come in to third level education, who may not have had the normal last year or two years of secondary school and who may not have had to do a proper exam, particularly with the Covid-19 lockdown, may feel immense stress having to deal with an exam situation they have never had to deal with or did not deal with because of the way everything happened in the past two years. I am very conscious that the way in which exams happen in colleges could be and probably is one of the key issues we need to understand for that cohort who have started college in the past year to two years. I am also very conscious that students may also have had to deal with the loss of older family members or any sort of family loss over that time.

One of the few things we have mentioned in terms of the impact of mental health is student dropouts. One of the key things on which the Minister, Deputy Harris, and I want to see more is around the technological universities, and this would be Ms Fox's area in particular. The technological universities and campuses that are being rolled out are crucial to getting access in regional areas to third level but also to encouraging access to apprenticeships as another model and way for students to reach degree or PhD level. We are now going to see the apprenticeships as well as the traditional courses into third level on the CAO forms and they are even looking at including placements this year. Students and parents will have more choice when they look at those forms, but we need to speak more about students themselves understanding the options that are available. There is much to said about the practical experience combined with the academic that may suit certain students more and still benefit them. When I think of apprenticeships, I think of people nearly running their own businesses a couple of years after doing those types of courses.

I believe it was Professor Dooley who mentioned the HEAR and DARE programmes. I am especially interested in these in terms of delivering equality of opportunity. One in four DEIS schools have access to those programmes, and even in my own area, primary and secondary schools do as well. I thank Ms Fox for the details she provided, particularly around student counsellors and the three or four pillars there. I very much appreciate that. She mentioned in her survey the fear of dropping out that one in three students have. Obviously this relates to personal, family and financial concerns, but does she have any more detail on that? I thank Ms O'Sullivan as well, who spoke about the promotion, anti-bullying and the efforts that needs to be put into that.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the Togetherall platform, the 24-7 access to community support that has been implemented this year, along with the 50808 24-hour textline number. Will Ms Fox speak about that because it has just been launched? Do any of the other guests wish to comment on how third level institutions or students are promoting that in universities or colleges?