Dr. Paul Kavanagh:

I thank the Senator for the question. The question is interesting because, as my colleague Ms Costello pointed out, while there is no work ongoing in the institute at the moment in this area, the issue the Senator raises, which is around women's mental health, is a really good example of where an organisation like the institute can bring huge value across the island. As we have been emphasising, the role of the institute is about bringing a focus on health and well-being in a positive sense, which includes, of course, mental health, and then bringing a focus on the distribution of that health and well-being across population groups and trying to shine a light on inequalities like, for example, gender, differences across socioeconomic groups or differences across ethnic groups.

The institute is uniquely positioned to shine a light on these issues around mental health across the island. It has an all-island focus where, as the Senator has signalled, history and legacy play an important role in shaping mental health. It has a focus on social determinants, which are really important with regard to understanding mental health challenges around housing, employment, etc. It has a focus on emerging threats to health and well-being, for example, social media. There has been work in the institute around social media, which will be on our minds when we think about mental health.

The other thing the Senator's question evokes for me is an underlining of the importance of how everything we do in the institute is underpinned by evidence, being evidence-led in this changing world, the different emphasis around one person's facts versus another person's facts, and the importance of evidence. It brings us back to the role that an all-island public health dataset could play in underpinning and understanding mental health across the island, tracking that and then understanding what the priorities for action are.