Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

Teachers, parents and everybody who has a role in education must address this issue. It has not received the attention in the context of the suicide statistics that it deserves.

Alcohol and drug abuse are also important. The Minister should pay particular attention to the emerging research on cannabis and drug use in general and mental health issues. There is disturbing new information from new, well documented research on the sequelae of drug use where mental health is concerned. For vulnerable young people where there might be a predisposition to depression or mental health difficulties, drug use can precipitate serious mental health problems. We should ensure that more people are exposed to the research and understand what it means. The Minister should examine this and ensure the information is disseminated to a wider audience.

Fine Gael has made a number of proposals on this issue but I do not have sufficient time to discuss them. Suffice to point out that support services for young people are critical, while the waiting lists for child and adolescent psychiatry must be addressed. Last week I informed the House that 159 young people are still being admitted to adult mental health facilities and adult psychiatric wards. This is unacceptable; it is not the way our mental health services should respond to young people in need.

Clearly, cross-party support is required to ensure the best prevention methods are put in place. In that spirit, I ask the Minister to give due and careful consideration to the proposals Fine Gael has made in this area. I welcome this debate. There is a great deal of work to be done, culturally and socially, to create a climate in Ireland for discussing mental health issues and to give confidence to people who have had mental health difficulties to speak about them. There is a long way to go, although there have been major improvements in recent times.