Mr. Patrick Reilly:

On the ethnic data, it is important to realise that as part of the training and awareness, GDPR is not an issue in collecting ethnic data. I wanted to clear that point because sometimes it gets mixed up. If I get the Deputy's first question, we do what are called awareness videos on promoting positive mental health, suicide prevention and all those things. We do this throughout the year, for example for World Suicide Prevention Day and World Mental Health Day. We do targeted initiatives. Travellers' organisations do this within local areas across the country.

The Deputy was asking about Travellers who would not have the supports. We have seen over the years Traveller primary healthcare workers who work with the community. During Covid, over 86% of Travellers received their Covid health information from Traveller organisations. That was a HSE report that showed this. We can see the importance Traveller organisations have on the ground. As I mentioned earlier, before the Deputy came in, a lot of this work falls on the community. We are not the professionals when it comes to these issues. I am not proud to say that in our community, mental health is beyond a crisis at this stage and it needs to be acknowledged that there is a crisis. No community, let alone my community, should be experiencing statistics with suicide rates seven times higher for men, five times higher for women, and with 11% of Traveller deaths being by suicide. No community should experience that. The Traveller organisations are doing all they can, in particular the primary healthcare workers. They are doing livesaving work. However, there is a need for that joined-up approach that Deputy Hourigan mentioned. Services and Departments need to be working together. The signposting - we are identifying people who need help and support but it is about getting them access to the right support in time. In our community they are ending up in emergency departments. They are not waiting around to access a GP or mental health professional.

I will give an example that only happened recently. I accompanied a person to an emergency department who made an attempt on their life. At the end of it all, the doctor asked me, "What do you want me to do? I am only a medical doctor." I said that the person needed a referral to a mental health professional and at least to give us that so we could get him the supports.

That person told me as we left that if we had not been there, they would have gone home. That is unfortunate, but it is the reality for Travellers and for a lot of people, not alone Travellers. I went on a roundabout there trying to capture some of that. I hope it answered the Deputy's questions in some shape or form.