Ms Saoirse Brady:

It is very hard to say what one thing would make a difference. I take it that I can say something different from my colleagues and that it will be added to the report as well. What is very clear from having BeLonG To, Inclusion Ireland, the ISPCC and our other colleagues here is that having an advocate - somebody who can speak on behalf of a child - is essential for this. Maybe the child does not need to go to CAMHS, but rather to a different service. It is important that a child can be directed to the help he or she needs at an early stage.

At the end of last year, the Children's Rights Alliance produced a "Know Your Rights" booklet with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and we ran a training session with more than 100 different service providers on mental health itself. Those providers came from statutory bodies such as Tusla and from many of the homeless services because there is a huge issue there and they do not know how to cope with young children and adolescents, their mental health and family mental health as well. There were also front-line staff from St. Patrick's Mental Health Services, which helped to fund that training programme. We travelled to Galway, Cork and Dublin. There is an appetite for training. Something that Inclusion Ireland said about accessible information about what one's rights are is essential in this area. I would build on that as well.

Something else that was said, that both the ISPCC and Dr. Geoffrey Shannon alluded to, on having mental health services here in Ireland, is going to become even more real with Brexit. We need to ensure that we have the services here and that we do not need to export children, because there will be issues there, and that is something a number of us are looking at as well.