Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A new research report on suicide has said that the mental health of young people has been disproportionately affected during the Covid pandemic.

Factors such as loneliness, jobs and income losses, bereavement and the impact of Covid affected people's mental health. There has been a complete lack of resourcing of mental health services, which will affect generations for years to come.

It is difficult to give figures on mental health change during Covid but demand on the services of the likes of Aware has increased by 100%. There is evidence, however, that the mental health of one person in five has been affected during Covid. Pieta House confirmed to me earlier that 7,000 people received more than 52 hours of one-to-one suicide intervention and bereavement consultation. It confirmed that it received more than 70,000 crisis calls and texts and some 50% of its clients were under the age of 25.

I would particularly like to pay tribute to our volunteers who work in Limerick Suicide Watch. They have been involved in interventions in incidents, which have increased by 30% in two years. The group's main focus is to keep eyes on the river and identify people who are in need. As part of the group's suicide awareness and community outreach programmes, volunteers visit schools to talk to the younger people and to let them know it is okay for them to come out and talk and that there is somebody there to talk to.

Like it or not, working from home is a reality and a UK survey detailed that more than 80% of people are working from home. The statistics show that people who are working from home suffer a negative impact. Working from home can be hugely beneficial for some people but it is not for everyone. If one looks at people who have families it can work but not everyone has a family and there are people who are single. From a mental health point of view, we are increasingly seeing that women are suffering from mental health the most due to working from home. We have to get this right. If people want to work from home let them do so but it does not fit everyone and we need to work with that. I ask the Minister of State to make sure that everyone has the equal right that if they want to work from home they can do so but that if they do not want to they can go to their workplace.

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