Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will obtain a detailed note for the Chair on that. We have been increasing mental health funding for third level significantly. We are conscious that universities are autonomous in how they decide to deliver supports but we have worked to put in place several initiatives and examples of best practice, including the text support service. We have established the mental health website that the Chair referred to. It entails a partnership approach that I believe originated in the UK. We are continuing to prioritise student supports, and we are doing so through Funding the Future as well. One can expect, from all aspects of government, mental health supports to deal with a challenging issue that became even more challenging after the Covid pandemic and cost-of-living crisis. We will try to make more progress in the budget but I am happy that the Togetherall initiative, in whose launch I was involved, is going well. I am happy that the technical support is going well. As we travelled around the country, we met people working on mental health supports at third level. I have seen the benefit of the Covid funding in beefing up mental health supports. I need to consider how we can embed some of this in more regular core funding. This is the work we are doing under Funding the Future.