Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I rise to support Senator Buttimer — I see him smiling, because I do not often support him — in his call for the resumption of social partnership. None of us needs to look too deeply to see the social unrest out there at the moment as a result of the economic downturn. There is an onus on every one of us to encourage anyone we know on either side — whether the Government or political side, or the union side — back into talks. It it the only way forward and the only way in which things can be done.

Although I mentioned this yesterday, I will ask the Leader again about the debate on mental health. I will be as forceful as Senator Mullen and ask him to name a date. Everybody who saw the "Prime Time" programme last night was sickened to the core. One went to bed depressed one's self after seeing the old, antiquated and unusable hospitals in which those who find themselves with mental health problems are housed. I take my hat off to the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Moloney, who is a very committed and hard-working man; that was acknowledged last night by the chairman of the College of Psychiatry of Ireland. He said last night on the programme that over the next three years we will see a phasing out of all the old units. I ask the Leader to give us a date for that urgent and much needed debate on mental health.