Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was pleased to see this week, as previous spokesperson on European affairs in the House, that the EU has agreed a deal to cap the price that telecom operators pay for using each other's networks, and that by 15 June 2017, this agreement will come into place. We are a far cry from where we were ten, 15 or 20 years ago, when if we went abroad we were afraid to even look at a phone never mind use it for fear of hundreds of euro of charges. It is one very positive thing that the EU has delivered. By 15 June an SMS will cost 1 cent, and people will be able to use their phones as though they were in Ireland.

I want to mention a recent documentary on RTE, which many of us will have seen, about the use of drugs, prescription drugs in particular but also other codeine-type drugs. I felt that the documentary, while it was very enlightening and interesting, was slightly anecdotal and lacked a bit of balance when it came to mental illness in particular. There are over 450,000 people in Ireland who are on anti-depressants, and we cannot underestimate how vital and perhaps life changing those drugs are for people in many instances. It must be said that a review of that area would be a very useful thing for the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to implement. If indeed the figures are as stark and as worrying as was highlighted in that documentary, we need to be implementing a more structured counselling service in the country in order that general practitioners and other medical professionals can safely recommend and prescribe counselling in certain instances. That is not to take from the fact, and I cannot stress this enough and I am repeating it, how important and vital these drugs are for some people who have mental illnesses. I do not think that balance came across in the documentary. I call on the Minister for Health to investigate the use of prescription medication in addressing mental health nationwide to avoid over-prescription and erroneous prescription.