Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join with the Cathaoirleach and Senator Conway in welcoming Aimee, her family and friends here today. If Aimee and people like her did not stand up, they would not get that justice. I will support and work with her and I admire what she has done.

I will continue by welcoming all those who have been in the Gallery today but also by extending congratulations to our junior certificate students, who are getting their exam results today. Possibly most of them have received their results by now. There were 67,000 students involved and they have been waiting a long time for them. I know that this junior certificate was different from the 2019 one, with all of the difficulty with Covid-19. As I always say in situations like this, I offer my congratulations to all who did well. I say to those who may perhaps be disappointed, they should not let it get to them too much. There is a great deal of reform going on in education at the moment, including in the exams. I am a great believer in the introduction of more practical and less written work but one also needs some written work. That is the way the system is moving because some students suffer enormous pressure in exams and just cannot cope with them, which we should always take into account. Today, then, is the junior certificate results day and it was the intermediate certificate during my day. I know I am showing my age now. It is a good exam, I suppose, in that it provides some training for the leaving certificate examination, which is all I would say to people about it. One has to complete one’s exam papers within a certain time and to apply oneself to it. Apart from that, I would not be overexcited if one has not done that well today.

I also refer to the Oireachtas Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, which met yesterday and to the comments of the Ombudsman for Children, Dr. Niall Muldoon, where he asked the Departments of Education and of Health to bring in a new model for dealing with mental health issues. He claims that if this new model was brought in, it would eliminate the waiting list in child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. Everybody, irrespective of what side of the House a Member sits, would think that that is a fantastic idea. We all wrestle with this every week in politics, we are all concerned, and we were all upset. Dr. Muldoon is talking about a model that has been put in place in Dorset in England where four mental health professionals deal with approximately 2,000 students in the schools. We should ask the Departments of Education and of Health to follow up on that matter and it is crucial that they do. We all know the strains, the anxieties and the pressures that are on people at present and we must do everything within our power to help those people. I am calling today, and I am sure everybody will agree with me, that we ask the Departments of Education and of Health to follow up on that and to give their support to that particular scheme.

Finally, I congratulate a Roscommon lady, Sharon Donoghue, who has become the patient advocacy and liaison service, PALS, co-ordinator - my colleague from Galway would probably know about this - at Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe. As the patients’ advocacy and liaison service co-ordinator, she will be helping patients, their families and carers to deal with any issues or problems which arise. It is a very good appointment and I wish her well.