Mary Moran (Labour)

I would like to echo the sentiments expressed by Senator Mooney when he called for the Minister of State with responsibility for disability services to come to the House. I spoke about the cut in services on the Order of Business yesterday and attempted to raise it on the Adjournment today. As I said yesterday, the families of some children with disabilities will now receive services three days a week, rather than five days a week. It is appalling that people with disabilities are among those most affected by cutbacks. This month, up to 1,000 will take part in the Department of Education and Skills one week Irish language and literacy summer camps. A further 1,500 will attend English literacy camps in August. The camps will take place in 29 schools. The topics of suicide and mental health were raised this morning and these camps are an excellent way of promoting good health and making learning outside the classroom fun. Perhaps they could be developed further in coming years, which would go a long way to helping the mental health of our young teenagers.