Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her reply but I do not think her reassurances are good enough at this stage. She has an obligation, as does the Government, to reinstate the implementation body. It was part of A Vision for Change, so she is not complying with her duty of care under that strategy. She has failed to tell me why it was disbanded and why it has not been reintroduced.

In respect of the review, this has been mentioned continually and yet no date has been given. I specifically asked what date the review started, when it will be finished and who sits on the review panel. A Vision for Change was a ten-year strategy, which finished last January. We are now in June and we still have no mention of the review and no date for it. The blueprint was written back in 2006. It had a chapter on suicide. In 2006, the incidence of suicide was at crisis levels. We do not need statements on how it should be done; it is all there. We need confirmation on how that report is going to be updated, reviewed and implemented. It will save the economy money, so saying the Government does not have money or did not have money is not an explanation. It is actually costing the economy more to do nothing.

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