Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am asking today for an update on the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. I appreciate that the Minister, Deputy Katherine Zappone, has published monthly updates on the website of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and is planning to bring proposals resulting from the recent facilitated meetings across the country to Cabinet. I am also aware that there will be more substantial news on the commission of investigation in the form of an interim report. Could the Deputy Leader shed some light on this? It might be an idea to invite the Minister to the House to give an update on this issue in its entirety. She was here before and that engagement was very useful to Members and survivors alike. Will the Deputy Leader please consider that?

Finally I applaud the group, Mental Health Warriors, which held a successful protest on Dame Street last night demanding 24-7 mental health services and expressing alarm at the significant increase in self-harm and suicidal ideation among children. Such issues are beginning at a much younger age. They are now quite frequently observable in primary schools and often end in tragedy, as we saw in the coroner's report on an 11 year-old girl last Friday.