Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the gentlemen very much for their presentations this morning. It is amazing what is going on in the audiovisual room at the moment in respect of the Mental Health Commission. I believe some online activities can also lead to mental health difficulties. The reason many of our colleagues have stepped out at this moment is to be in the audiovisual room. One of the ladies involved, Senator Joan Freeman, is presenting her report. Much of the negativity over the Internet recognises a stepping stone that can lead to mental health issues.

I am going to jump over, as it were, one or two little points. We might have a conversation as we proceed. I will follow the theme of education. I am a mother of three children. When they were in national school, we struggled to find a speaker to talk to parents about good, safe digital activity, the various sites one should visit, the various links, and the three-letter acronyms. It was a question of understanding children's conversation. They can have a conversation very different from what I am used to. They are far ahead of us.

This brings me back to the matter of buy-in from parents, the Government, the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Health. Teachers need the support but they have to get the buy-in from the Department of Education and Skills. They need the tools to be able to deliver, either through the curriculum or through teacher training college. The relevant information needs to be nearly as important as Irish, English, mathematics and religion. It comprises one of their skills for life.

We need to educate children in preschool, for the simple reason that one can do so with a little puppet. One can teach children about healthy eating and healthy activities. One can teach children that Peppa Pig dancing in the muddy puddle is actually bad behaviour because her mother has told her not to do it. My point is on that form of education. What do both delegates believe we should be doing to support the Departments? If they had the opportunity to guide us and ask the Departments how they should equip themselves to engage with the parents and pupils, what would they advise us to do from a policy perspective?