Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of our Fine Gael group, which I am incredibly proud to lead in this House, I welcome the Taoiseach. There are 16 of us in total and a great mix of youth, experience and expertise unique to most of us on individual matters, and I rely on that expertise of our colleagues today. I thank the Taoiseach for that honour.

I have been in these Houses, both Dáil and Seanad Éireann, for almost 13 years. It is often said Seanad Éireann is far more collegial in the debates we have than is the case in the Dáil, which is probably a little more lively than here. The unique aspect of this Chamber is that despite major ideological differences between colleagues, we try to find consensus and common ground on issues in order that we will not divide the House. That is not always possible but even when it is not, I genuinely believe the debate is always respectful and the Chamber is a nice place to be in. That belies the level of work that gets done, given we get through a considerable volume of work without grandstanding. This is a forum for discussing matters of significant concern to people that sometimes do not make the agenda of the Dáil. The emerging voices we have and the new issues that are brought to the public domain show the value of this House and the democratic system at work. That is why it is important we cherish it.

We all know protest is absolutely part of our democratic process and it has to be enshrined that people can make their cases heard, vociferously if they need to, but what we saw last week was not a protest. We have all made comments on it and I am not going to add to them, but we need to have a serious conversation about those topics that are being discussed on the margins of social media and WhatsApp groups and about the level of misinformation that is being spread. Unfortunately, some people in the centre believe that misinformation in the absence of the Seanad, the Dáil and the Oireachtas committees having those respectful conversations and putting accurate information into the public domain. I ask the Taoiseach to help us do that and to lead that conversation because it has to be done. I know he is proud to lead the Government, with the list of all the achievements we have had so far through a pandemic, Brexit, the Ukraine war and the cost-of-living crisis. We sometimes take for granted what we have done and are proud of because there is still a long list of things left to be done. I congratulate him on his children's initiative because it is very worthwhile.

The myriad issues across that spectrum that affect children are wide and varied, but I ask him to make a statement today on children and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. I believe we need a radical overhaul of CAMHS and that will require root-and-branch systemic changes, and probably new legislation, to address the assessment process. Despite the fact significant funding is going to CAMHS of some €300 million-plus per year every year, the aptitude does not deliver a response to people under the age of 18 and in particular young girls. One in five girls under the age of 18 self-harms. They are probably the single biggest cohort of young people going to counselling services for suicidal ideation, yet the State is spending year in, year out €300 million-plus on an organisation that is not having the impact we would love to see. I am a proud volunteer with Pieta House. Of the €1.2 billion we spend on mental health every year, we give Pieta House a miserable €2 million, yet if you ask anybody to name a charity that is responsible for leading the change and helping people, the first name they will mention is Pieta House. They will not start talking about how brilliant CAMHS is but rather about how brilliant Pieta House is. I am asking for proper funding for Pieta House in this year's budget that is risk averse, but I am also asking for the Taoiseach's offices to have a radical look at how we approach assessments and how we fund CAMHS.