Phil Prendergast (Labour)

I read of a report yesterday where 12 young people in Dublin were successfully rehabilitated through a drugs rehabilitation programme run in conjunction with the HSE. There are, therefore, such initiatives that are quite successful. Where there is a successful model such as this it should be used in other communities throughout the country in the fight against drugs, which is a major national issue.

I attended a presentation this morning on behalf of Headstrong on the mental health of young people. Reference was made to a programme that has been a very successful model in Australia. Where the adoption of a model has proven to contribute to a huge reduction in the incidence of suicide — the incidence of which is more than 500 here — we should examine that model to determine how it could be used here, and funding should be provided. In the long term not only would it save lives and have a measurable effect, but it would also be a model by which we could measure outcomes.