Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Joint Committee On Health
Impact of Covid-19 on Children: Discussion
Ms Suzanne Connolly:
I would agree with Mr. Church about increasing the allocated budget. I would also say the services we provide should be about the needs of the child, the parents and the family, and that we have wraparound and that we are all accountable for working together in that context. For me, the magic wand would be that any child and any parent in need of a service receives warm, welcoming, responsive, evidence-based approaches that want to help them and want to make a difference. It is also very important that we are a society where we recognise that to seek help is a strength and to be able to receive help is a strength, and that we are all in this together. That is something I wanted to say, namely, we are all in life together. As a country, if we chose to use our resources effectively, we could do fabulous things in terms of meeting the needs of children and their parents across a range of issues, but in particular in the context of their mental health and well-being.