Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

For 17 years since its inception in 2007, SOSAD Ireland has provided a crisis lifeline for people struggling with suicidal ideation, self-harm, depression, bereavement, stress and anxiety through the provision of free confidential counselling in-person and remotely, a 24-7 freephone helpline and an online messaging service. This work is supported by a team of 206 volunteer counsellors across Ireland but, without core funding and promised Government intervention, this service - as the Minister of State is aware - is at risk of imminent closure.

Last year in October, during mental health awareness month, a Sinn Féin delegation of which I was a member, met with SOSAD representatives here in Leinster House. Following this, on the floor of the House our spokesperson for mental health, Deputy Mark Ward, raised the crisis facing the organisation directly with the Minister of State. He sought urgent Government intervention. Collectively as a group, we then wrote to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and asked her to meet the group and to facilitate a meeting between the HSE and SOSAD. A positive meeting took place between the Minister of State and SOSAD in early November 2024. This gave the group hope and, crucially, its members were given a personal commitment by the Minister of State on the provision of interim funding to keep the doors open while the group explored sustainability options with the HSE. Since then, unfortunately, the group has had no contact from the Minister of State, no answer to phone calls or emails and no word on the delivery of the promised funding that is desperately needed to keep SOSAD going.

SOSAD's first meeting with the HSE took place in January 2025 and the group is now actively engaging with it and planning for sustainable future funding. However, this will not be possible if it cannot keep the doors open in the meantime. With only a few thousand euro in the bank today, the hope of continuing to firefight is looking more bleak by the minute. Interim funding is essential for SOSAD's survival until it can secure long-term sustainable supports from the HSE. I have written to the Minister of State since November, as has my party leader and our party spokesperson on mental health. Other colleagues around the country have done the same. I have met with SOSAD several times in its Drogheda offices, where I saw the importance of the service at first hand.

For context, I will quickly put on record some of the statistics that will prove, if it was ever in doubt, how invaluable this service is to my home town of Drogheda, throughout Louth and the north east, and nationwide. In 2024, the service offered more than 23,000 counselling sessions to more than 1,900 individual clients from 28 counties and 150 different nationalities. The office in Drogheda facilitated more than 8,000 sessions; in Meath nearly 5,000; in Cavan nearly 3,000; in Laois nearly 3,000; in Dundalk more than 2,000 and in Monaghan more than 1,200. Almost 4% of its clients are under the age of 18. Some 32% are younger than 25 years. A further 25% are aged between 26 and 35, so almost 57% of these people are under the age of 35. Approximately 65% of SOSAD's clients are female and 34% are male. Its helpline offered approximately 250 hours of support last year. It is simply unthinkable and unacceptable that any Minister or Government is prepared to gamble with such vital community-based mental health supports.

The interim emergency funding that was promised must be urgently provided. The Minister of State has an opportunity to intervene here, at the eleventh hour, before it is too late. I plead with her to engage with SOSAD as a matter of urgency and make good on her commitments.

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