Mr. John Church:

It does if they are touching 18. Sometimes we get children of 19 as well. These are issues that our volunteers are very well-trained on and we can deal with them for children under 18 but it is about building the resilience of the child. The conversation with the child is important. We do not provide solutions. We do not direct the child as to how to do things. We establish what their network is and what their supports are first and foremost and encourage them to come up with a solution. That may take a number of phone calls or online chats but we believe it is the way to do it, as opposed to prescribing for every child. Let them come up with the answer and they can ring any time. Some of our busiest times are online chats in the middle of the night when the house has gone very quiet and the parents are in bed.

At least they can now go online and have a chat with somebody, who could be in Limerick, Castlebar, Drogheda or elsewhere. We have a number of units around the country. Children get exactly the same welcome and go through the same process in each instance.