Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

New School of Veterinary Medicine: Discussion

Mr. Tim Conlon:

It was interesting to listen to my colleague Ms Muldoon talk about the work with the National Office for Suicide Prevention because it is something we do very much in the higher education system more generally. We have a national strategy for student well-being and mental health. The issues of student resilience and student well-being have been a feature post pandemic, and we are very much working with the National Office for Suicide Prevention in supporting students into, through and out of higher education, so there is a good bit of cross-working there. There was reference to the National Suicide Research Foundation in UCC. We work very closely with it as well to try to draw together the various pieces of research nationally on this, which is a very difficult issue. It is just worth noting that there is a lot of work ongoing on supporting students into and through higher education and out into their careers.