Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will raise two issues, if I may, and call for two debates. First, I had a meeting on Monday in the Department of Health with grieving parents of a young Irish boy, Gavin Coyne, who passed away in Newcastle last year with a heart complaint. The care that we provide for children with heart issues needs to be examined and the way that we care for parents who have to deal with this situation and who have to seek treatment abroad needs to be further investigated because the treatment that this family and their son got left much to be desired. We made progress at the meeting with high-ranking officials but a political discussion needs to take place in this Chamber as to how we invest in that area, how we can support children with heart complaints and how we can support families because there is still a discussion to be had in that way. A young Irish child died, not in Ireland but abroad, and we need to have a conversation about that. I hope the Leader can facilitate a conversation with the Minister for Health on how we send children abroad for certain operational procedures.

The second issue I want to raise is the issue of mental health. I note the comments of the Ombudsman for Children who is quite critical of the State's response to children's mental health issues. We had some quite disgusting comments over the course of the most recent referendum where Members of this House stated that mental health was not real health. In my constituency, in the past month we have had two instances at two DART stations where young people have lost their lives. I witnessed a vigil in Harmonstown DART station attended by young people who were traumatised by their friend, the person whom they loved and knew, who had taken his own life at Harmonstown DART station. Flowers and candles were left. This is an epidemic that we in this House all know far too well. As public representatives, we must have a response to this. I ask the Leader to facilitate a conversation with the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for mental health because where I live, the area that I care passionately about, at local DART stations people are literally ending their lives. This cannot be a situation that is normalised. What is most worrying about it is that it has not seemed to have got any traction or much comment. I call for that debate in this House as a matter of urgency.