Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We agree with the Order of Business.

Can the Leader ask the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, to attend the House for a debate on mental health? She has issued a statement on the matter. It is the seventh anniversary of the publication of A Vision for Change yet there is no current public plan to review the implementation of A Vision for Change.

Government and the various agencies acknowledge the slow pace of the implementation of that plan in moving the system away from the institutions to community care. Senator White and others will talk about the national emergency that is our suicide rate and the fact that as a nation we are failing to implement the policies that could have the biggest impact on our effort to deal with that issue. It is important that we would deal with that as a matter of urgency.

I ask the Leader to arrange for the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Deenihan, to make a statement to both Houses of the Oireachtas on the process followed for the selection of members of the board of the Heritage Council. It appears from recent media reports that following an application process that saw some 76 people apply to become members of the board, the Minister moved to select two individuals who had neither applied for the particular job nor, arguably, had the suitable qualifications necessary for it. In a small country it is probably possible to trace political lineage to any individual but it is ironic that one is a former press officer for the Labour Party and the other was a campaign activist for President Higgins. In the interests and integrity of the people involved and the work of the council, it is important that the process followed is highlighted, particularly for the 76 applicants who were not successful and who I am sure wonder how two people who did not apply and do not appear to have specific qualifications appropriate to that board would be appointed to that position. It would be useful if we could have that clarification.

On a day that our Special Olympians are in Leinster House I am sure everybody in the House would like to wish all our athletes the very best of success as they head off to South Korea on 25 January.