Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are only going to get this right if we start from a factual position and if there is no delusion on anybody's part. The death of Elisha Gault, the child I mentioned, was not captured in the official statistics. She is not officially recorded as a death by suicide. Instead of claiming - I believe erroneously - that deaths by suicide are falling, the Taoiseach would be better served by looking at those real live statistics and understanding that they do not represent the full picture. The Taoiseach rattled off figures to me, citing a figure of €40 million. However, only €14 million of that is new money. That is a fact.

I am sure the Taoiseach understands that A Vision for Change from 2009 was one of those fairly rare occasions when people right across political and public life agreed that this is the plan and the way forward. Despite this, more than ten years later the plan has not been delivered. It has not been resourced and it has not been funded.

Here is the rub. The Taoiseach can bat this issue off with me today. However, families across the land, perhaps watching this exchange and listening to him as the Head of the Government, are in desperate situations. They have children and young people who are self-harming and who go missing.

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