Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Taoiseach. Tagann sé anseo go rialta agus bíonn sé réidh le ceisteanna a fhreagairt i mbealach cuimsitheach. Molaim sin. I will digress into a brief retrospective as a Border person to thank the Taoiseach for his management of Brexit and the avoidance of a hard border.

Moving to the present day, I am very happy that child poverty is a priority for the Government and that the Taoiseach is personally committed to dealing with eliminating it. Obviously the free books are great initiative and the hot meals are critical intervention. Any educator would tell you that. The fifth area the Taoiseach identified in his list of things was health and well-being. We need a quality child and adolescent mental health service, CAMHS, and we need an immediately accessible CAMHS. I would like the Taoiseach to comment on making that possible. Yesterday, Seán Campbell of Foróige was here through the good offices of Senator Currie. He said that if €40 million over three years was devoted to youth services it could reach 83,000 young people and that every euro invested would lead to €22 in long-term benefits. Could the Taoiseach please comment on that as another way of addressing youth poverty? I look forward to those responses.