Victor Boyhan (Independent)

I have two requests. First, I thank the people from Samaritans Ireland who gave Oireachtas Members a very powerful briefing, with personal testimony of people's experiences. One of the main takeaways was that almost every minute, a person from Samaritans Ireland answers a call for help to its 24-hour telephone service. The organisation made only three asks of politicians. I made a commitment to pursue and advocate for the first of them, which is to prioritise the development of a national loneliness strategy within the Taoiseach's office. Clearly, I have no powers over the functions of the Taoiseach but most Members of this House are members of various parties and will have an opportunity to raise this issue on Wednesday evenings or whenever their parliamentary party meetings are held. I, in turn, will raise it by writing directly to the offices of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste - in fact, I have already done so - seeking support for such a strategy. It is incumbent on all of us to use our political contacts to ask for this and it is important that we do so.

Particularly in rural communities, as we know, rural isolation is one of the big issues that feeds into this problem. The representatives of Samaritans Ireland told us about the number of people who call very late at night and who, after many months of ringing and maybe not even speaking, will eventually start to talk about their sense of isolation and rural loneliness. That leads in to my second request. Former Senator Keith Swanick, who is an amazing man and an amazing doctor, produced an important report, A Connected Island - An Ireland Free From Loneliness. It is an extensive report, which is available in the Oireachtas Library, and everyone should read it. I ask for a debate with that report as its backbone. We should have statements on connectedness, rural isolation and loneliness. People can live in a city and be lonely. Clearly, there are mental health issues associated with loneliness. It is all very well coming out with platitudes and talk but we can do something about this. We should seek to develop a national strategy on tackling loneliness, in collaboration with other stakeholders. I ask that a relevant Minister under whose brief this issue falls would come to the House for statements and debate on this matter.