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

The council's shared island perspective on mental health, published a few weeks ago, concludes that "there is scope for development, and much value to be found, in increased cross-border co-operation". The research finds that "many aspects of mental health services and promotion are well-suited to cross-border working, such as [for example,] ... on-line supports, mental health promotion, and training and education". Increased cross-Border work is viewed by stakeholders as "positive and desirable" and it was found that specific areas of co-operation, such as suicide prevention or the treatment of eating disorders, would add a very significant value to care. As other research commissioned by the shared island unit has found, community and voluntary organisations are already informally working on a cross-Border basis and, as a result, there is a real appetite to formalise these arrangements, to have processes and bodies that can continuously support such co-operation.

Existing co-operation on mental health has played a crucial role in establishing connections and maintaining co-operation and interaction between the health services, North and South. Does the Taoiseach agree with the council's recommendation that Government should build on this progress and that a more specific and formalised mental health cross-Border structure should be established? Will the Taoiseach confirm the next steps from the shared island unit to advance the council's paper on mental health?

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