Dr. Niall Muldoon:

It would not be my forte to have all the research. However, there is no doubt that the committee has heard from a number of witnesses over the last number of weeks who have highlighted the high level of mental health issues for children. That is why we are here; it is clear.

My rationale would be that we are living in a society that is highly pressured all the time for children in a way it never was before. They are different types of pressures. There is much more awareness of their peers' opinions from a very young age than ever before in terms of how they dress, what their hair looks like or what their body shapes are. Those sorts of questions are now popping up for children as young as seven years old around communion. Those sorts of things are different than would have been the case before. Previously, people were in a bubble of their own peers and they generally looked after one another. There is an outside pressure coming in.

That is only anecdotal but there is also the sense that we have many more vulnerable children. We are moving in a situation where we do not support the vulnerable children. As the Deputy knows, probably close to 18% of our children are vulnerable to or living at risk of poverty at this moment. We have many more children with disabilities who are not getting the support they need. We have parents who are under a huge amount of stress in various different ways. Again, maybe their pressures are from high-level, well-paid jobs, and that is a different type of pressure.

When I hear about what is coming, I think we have an opportunity within the education system to create a holistic, well-rounded young person. I have always said that the target for education when someone leaves secondary school should be a child with self-confidence and self-esteem. The academics will look after themselves. People can catch up with their academics when they are 25 or 40; they cannot catch up with their self-esteem or self-confidence. Therefore, if we can build a well-rounded, well-engaged young person from the earliest years through to secondary level, then such people can cope with anything that is thrown at them. That is what we need to be targeting. While there is an opportunity now to change the education system, the stuff I am talking about in terms of mental health psychotherapy and so forth should be the tail end of a well-supported child. Things like libraries, the Grow It Yourself programme and Fighting Words should be in schools. The whole concept is that if we are treating the whole child and not just the academic part then there should be less need for therapy. When therapy is needed, however, it is in the school. It becomes a real hub for the change of our generation from here. It will not take away all the stresses but it will create many more opportunities for those young people to thrive. I am not sure if I helped the Deputy without giving him the facts and figures.