Dr. Mary Tilki:

Deputies Billy Kelleher and Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked about the very poor health of the second generation and there is no simple answer. Some have done phenomenally well in terms of education - even people from very poor backgrounds take pride in education and many have done well. Others have not thrived and some people in poor and disadvantaged communities were not proud to be Irish because of the discrimination they faced. Some schools made great efforts to get children to use Irish accents. In poor and less confident communities racism and discrimination were woven into people's lives and the Troubles had a significant impact in this respect. Some Irish parents were not confident and did not instil confidence in their children. Some Irish people in Britain formed bad habits and we can be very judgmental about their smoking and drinking, but the circumstances in which they lived explain a lot.

On Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin's question, discrimination played a big part in people keeping their heads below the parapet and thus not availing of health services. Those who accessed health and social services often faced discrimination.

For example, one might go to a doctor with any kind of health problem only for the first question to be how much does one drink and how much does one smoke and to be told that were one to give those up, one would be fine. While these are quite legitimate questions for a professional to ask, not as the first question. Moreover, people's accents were made fun of and people were blamed and judged for their poor health behaviour and poor health and that does not help. Another point when talking about men is that it was a very macho culture, particularly in the building industry. One's confidence was about how many of yards of a trench one could dig in a day or how many bricks one could carry on one's hod and if one had a health problem, one would be a weakling to give into it. There is something about that. Deputy Catherine Byrne asked about the role of Catholicism and the role of religion. It played a part that was highly positive for some people but it has played a very negative part. We are embarrassed about our naughty bits with people saying there is no problem and we are very familiar with this. However, for the older generation in particular, it often was easier and they had more confidence in praying to St. Anthony, St. Jude or whoever that they would get better. They would invest rather more in that than in going to a doctor who perhaps was less than sensitive. The other side of it is that many people got great help and support through their personal faith and through their religious practices. While it is easy to knock the others, we must recognise that.

As for what else, Ms Jennie McShannon has a list of things I must say.