Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party)
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I thank our guests for their opening statements. It was great that we had the opportunity to read them before they arrived. Deputy Conway-Walsh is correct in that a lot of the statements reflected the same kinds of issues and problems, although, obviously, they have had differing experiences. It struck me that they are calling for teacher training in the area of mental health services, which demonstrates that this is not just about looking for more resources. It is about a whole-of-education-system approach, so it is reasonable to say we need more resources as well as believing that all teachers should have training.

Mr. Petrie stated that the school is the first port of call. It is a little bit like a GP; he or she does not necessarily have the expertise to take the matter further but he or she is the first person people come to when they are struggling, and the GP needs to know where the next port of call is. We hear a lot about the lack of joined-up thinking, and we can look back and say what is not working, but the opportunity that our guests and us in the committee have is that the report will make recommendations, so we should focus on what the positive ones are. What would each of our guests choose as their top two recommendations in order that we can get this right?

I do not agree with much of what Senator Mullen said but we do agree on some things. Not only must we look at mental health services but we must also focus on the difficulties faced in modern life by young people and how we address that in schools, particularly around tolerance. In some schools I have come across, there is a difficulty with hearing all voices and respecting everyone's opinion. When that opinion is damaging to another person and the expression of that opinion undermines another person's rights, teachers can feel trapped between two constitutional rights, in some ways. What can we do before the mental health services get involved? Are there other things we can do to support teachers in addressing those conflicts, for want of a better word, between students that lead to mental health problems? I am referring to bullying and so on.