Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. In the interests of time I will revert to him on the issue of respite in writing but I take the point that carers are exhausted. My colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, is working with the HSE specifically in respect of a summer programme that I hope will see some day respite, in the first instance, for children. I will come back to the Deputy with a more detailed note on that.

While I acknowledge the work Deputy Browne has been doing in the whole area of mental health, as he said, at the request of the Oireachtas last Thursday evening, I received Government approval for the new A Vision for Change, Sharing the Vision - a Revised Mental Health Policy for Everyone. It is my understanding that the document will be launched tomorrow. The Minister of State, Jim Daly, has been briefing stakeholders in advance of that launch. Once we launch that document, we need to respond to Deputy Browne's challenge, which he has been putting to us for some weeks in the House, in respect of what we can do immediately in terms of a task force. I have heard from Mental Health Reform and others. I do not want to speak for them but they wanted to make clear that any such task force would be aligned with the new A Vision for Change document. I believe we will be in a position to do that.

We will also launch next week a new crisis text line, which will be Ireland's first ever 24-7 text service. It is aimed in particular at younger people and teenagers. I will not take up any more time on that now but the launch of the new A Vision for Change tomorrow will be an important step in establishing the task force.

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