Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)

I, too, commend the Minister of State and her team in the Department, all the stakeholders who engaged with her in the public consultation period and the individuals and organisations that fed into the mammoth piece of work before the House now. I acknowledge the contributions made by colleagues in the House today and commend the Minister of State on her openness to going through and debating the amendments proposed for Committee Stage and later Stages.

I acknowledge the work the Minister of State has been doing in her Department in addition to her work on this mammoth Bill. I thank her again for the community access support team pilot project in Limerick, which combines a mental health professional with a garda in first-responder capacity in Limerick. I acknowledge the significant emphasis the Minister of State has placed on men’s mental health and the initiative she launched at the ploughing championship last week that entails 15,000 free counselling sessions for men. I thank her and her Department officials again for all the work they are doing on this. I appreciate it.