Dr. Brendan O'Shea:

The Deputy asked a really interesting question. If someone is distressed or in need, who should be on the first line? We are of the perspective in the college that whatever is put in place should be evidence-based and Irish people should have a lot more choice than they have at present. At present people who are not well-off, who are deprived, have really busy GPs. Their pharmacist might have time to have a word with them. There might be something happening in the parish centre, but that is all they have. We do not see that anybody should be the first line but we see that general practitioners are good and skilful at gatekeeping who needs to go to the really expensive secondary care system.

In principle, the ICGP strongly supports having more stands of talk therapy and strongly concurs with the observations of our colleagues here that those strands of therapy should be diverse and they should be tried out. There is much research out there. We like the study by Professor Tom Fahey on antidepressants on adolescents because it was done on an Irish population.

The Deputy asked a good question of whether we have a good relationship with our colleagues here. Truthfully, and to everyone's embarrassment, we do not have a good, effective relationship. We would obviously say that it is because we are too busy and do not have time but it is because we have not prioritised proper joined-up thinking. We have developed a good relationship this afternoon.