Joe O'Toole (Independent)

We can learn from the issues arising from those horrific, tragic and appalling events. There is the question of mental health and how we deal with it in this country. If one ties those stories together with the series on suicide running in The Irish Times, we have to ask ourselves where we are going in terms of our mental health and what provisions we are putting in place to deal with mental health problems. I seriously ask that we get an outline of the proposals in that regard. In that context, the points raised by Senator Fitzgerald are important.

I spoke to the Minister with responsibility of the public service only an hour ago and asked him about the progress on the Croke Park agreement. The House will be pleased to know that the proposals from the various Departments are at last available and are on the web. I have been looking through some of them and I am not completely happy with them. I ask that the Leader would today give Members an absolute date for a second discussion on the Croke Park agreement. As he will recall, last week he gave a commitment that we would have that debate in the course of this month. I want to have a date for that within the next ten days or so. It is crucial that we do that and that we examine it.

In the meantime, I would say that the most negative force in Irish society may well be mental health and it could well be that it is tied into the economic issue. Certainly, we need openness, commitment and honesty in dealing with those issues and I seek them.