Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Senator will appreciate that the HSE has statutory responsibility for the planning and delivery of health and personal social services at local level. The HSE, as is reflected in its annual service plan, strives to deliver services in the best possible manner. Currently, Jigsaw has 66% coverage throughout the country but I would love to see a situation where we have 100% coverage as this is so important. Coupled with this, I have met a lot of youth groups recently. The Senator mentioned the Connecting for Life strategy. I was given figures, which may be revised up or down slightly, that, unfortunately, showed that 431 people took their own lives. That is hugely problematic. I recently met a group who had lost one of their friends in the Kilkenny area. They told me they heard of Jigsaw way too late and it was sad to hear that. At the moment I am working on a leaflet that is going to go into every secondary school next month, which is Mental Health Month. It is a small three-page leaflet, which will identify all the groups such as Jigsaw, SpunOut.ie, MyMind, BeLonG To, and the 50808 text support service. I am happy to say 500,000 of these will go to secondary schools. Students might put them in their schoolbags and might not look at them until night time but they will know there is help and support there. I will do all I can to work with the Senator.