Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank her for presenting to us. I acknowledge and pay tribute to the 29 people who lost their lives in mental health residential units and to their families. I welcome the start of the vaccination programme's roll-out to the over-65s in more than 46 mental health facilities.

We have heard the statistics and everyone has mentioned the increase in mental health issues. According to Trinity College Dublin's studies, one in five people is suffering. There has been a significant impact, especially on children. Special schools are reopening, which is giving parents hope and respite. Other schools will be reopening. College students have lost their college experience, which is a major issue. The 50808 text line is crucial, as it allows students at home to ask for help and talk if they are feeling down. Most shocking is that domestic violence is on the rise. It is significant in regional areas. There have been reports in The Connacht Tribuneabout the increase in domestic violence. That is scary. What is happening behind closed doors as opposed to outside is shocking.

I am a member of the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health, which is chaired by Senator Black. We all speak of mental health and wellness, but sometimes we must ask what well-being is and what it feels like. When we speak of mental health, it is as if well-being is up there somewhere, but well-being is about feeling well in oneself. Sometimes, it is not about the individual but a collective experience. It is about the community a person lives in and how he or she contributes. I suppose I am representing the Roscommon-Galway constituency, but the sense of community in small towns and villages in regional areas is strong. Before we had to deal with Covid, we had to deal with young people leaving our areas, but it is that sense of community that keeps many of those towns and villages going. There is an education for us all about what well-being is.

I am conscious of the particular challenges in regional areas - older populations, particularly in Roscommon and east Galway, and more isolated areas, which we saw from the previous census. Many people live on their own, for example, older people who have lost their loved ones and whose children are living abroad or in cities. It is difficult to find hope.Hope is a very simple thing but that is what we have to give. We have to give hope. We have to understand what well-being is and we have to have something to look forward to, in a nutshell.

I want to speak about the importance of certain activities such as walking and cycling. We know this and that they are wonderful and we need to do them but it is so important to put funding into active travel to get footpaths so people can go out and walk in rural areas because, unfortunately, we cannot do it safely. Some of my colleagues have mentioned the importance of arts, culture, music and heritage. We have our amateur theatre groups, community town hall theatres and rural pubs that sometimes double as community centres and put on plays. They are all run by dedicated volunteers. They are highlights of our communities and they are so well supported but we need investment to support these groups. I am speaking about how mental health is connected with so many areas.

Local and national newspapers and regional stations are very important to me. Print and radio media are crucial to our well-being, particularly for those living in a town or village whose only connection to the outside world is listening to their favourite talk show host on Galway Bay FM or Shannonside Northern Sound. They are who get people up in the morning and who they listen to between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. or whenever. People know what is happening in the world. With regard to newspapers, we have had many representations this week about the huge drop in advertising for print. There has been a 20% drop. We see support for broadcast. We need to look at support for our regional newspapers also.

The journalists have also been on the front line and we should not forget this. The journalists have been out there, getting the news and putting it into the newspapers at regional, local and national level. They are among the front-line workers who are supporting well-being and making sure there are stories that have some levity as well as the seriousness of everything we are dealing with. My job at home is to collect the newspapers to deliver them to some of my family and they really look forward to that. Once a week, the newspaper comes through the door.

We need to integrate across Departments with regard to education, farming and local government where we see mental health coming in. The Irish Farmers' Journalis doing a campaign to phone a friend. There is also the European innovation programme on farm safety, which includes mental health and well-being. We see this happening in many Departments and I encourage it.