Dr. Niall Muldoon:

Absolutely, a whole range of good policies are outlined under Better Outcomes Brighter Futures and Healthy Ireland, which aim to improve the lives of children from a very early age. These policies deal with how to make children physically competent, resilient and emotionally aware, all of which is very positive. Parents today are also much more emotionally aware and those in the 25 to 30 years age bracket know how to help their children in that regard. However, we still need to provide services when something goes wrong. That is why I am suggesting that therapists or counsellors should be available at primary care level. A report is being launched at St. Patrick's hospital today which finds that some four year olds are displaying signs of anxiety but we can cut out some of the problems at source with very simple stuff. The aforementioned report is very clear that many of the issues for children are related to marriage breakdown, difficult family relationships, blended families and so on. These are normal aspects of life now but if children do not sort them out in their heads when they are four or five years old, by the time they are 14 or 15 years old, they can have a real impact. If we can provide a six-month window of opportunity, we can prevent many problems. We have a lot of the right policies and thinking but we need the resources to match.