Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

We are developing a whole-school approach for the emotional well-being of young children and how they feel about themselves. It is a different approach and we have to be very careful about it, because we do not want to emphasise that it is a negative thing. It must always be about something very positive and how one feels about oneself and about others. Mr. Tony Bates is developing that for us for secondary schools, but I would rather we started earlier. Children are quite capable of articulating their emotional feelings from a very young age.

In answer to Deputy Troy, we could have spent the money very early on in the year, but my fear was that it would get lost in the usual abyss. We were very careful about that. We would have loved to spend it earlier. We are now spending it in a much more targeted and better way. We will have to change our thinking about how we do things in the future and this is one area in which we have been very careful. There were no problems with the bureaucrats. In fact, they were very helpful in this case.

Deputy O'Sullivan is quite right. The normalisation of mental health as part of the overall health structure is the ultimate aim. We will be able to say next year what we have done, but we also need to ensure we are constantly progressing. We would never say we are finished dealing with cancer or cardiac care and that there will be no more progress. We cannot afford to say that about mental health either. We must be always progressing our thinking, our delivery and how people access services. That kind of focused attention is what will provide us a service that will be as normal as the service provided when somebody breaks a leg.

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