Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome our guests in the Public Gallery. It is great that young women are coming in to visit the House. I hope they will be representatives in future.

I wish to acknowledge the work of Maria Walsh, MEP, on mental health. I am a member of the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health. We know the impact the past couple of years have had, particularly on young people in towns across Ireland. We hear it from parents, teachers and everyone else. Ms Walsh is doing a significant amount of work at European level to make 2023 the European year of mental health. She has set up a petition and I ask colleagues to consider supporting it. It is important that we support mental health in the time ahead. She is also seeking the establishment of a comprehensive EU mental health strategy and for minimum requirements for teleworking across the EU to be defined. This is crucial because, while we want to discuss well-being, the impact of working online has to be considered. In many cases, it is non-stop and 24-7. When it comes to mental health and the digital world of work, we want to support people being able to work from home. We in the regions know how important it is that people do not have to commute for several hours to get to work. If they are working non-stop, however, that will be a major issue in terms of their well-being. I ask colleagues to support the call of Maria Walsh. It is important to support campaigns relating to mental health in rural areas.