Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 1 Mar 2012

Vol. 757 No. 3

Topical Issue Debate

Modern Language Teaching

Deputy Michael P. Kitt

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this issue and I thank the Minister for attending the Chamber. I am sure the Minister is familiar with the newsletter of the company involved in the modern languages in primary schools initiative. The most recent edition refers to the ending of the modern languages in primary schools initiative as a devastating blow for all of those involved in language education in primary, secondary and third level education. It was completely unexpected. Language learning has never been so much to the forefront of national politics, which is a good thing. This group of people tried to get host teacher training positions for partner colleges in France, Germany and Spain and demand always exceeds supply. The trainees in schools always benefit from the experience.

I am disappointed at the small amount of money saved by this measure. The initiative was exceptional value for money, with a small budget allowing 27,000 fifth class and sixth class pupils to benefit. The programme costs very little and the programme develops the child's language and literacy skills. The Minister is focused on literacy and numeracy and I hope he will see the link between this initiative and literacy and numeracy. The 2008 report by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, is being quoted as the reason for stopping this initiative but it is also fair to point out that the NCCA is currently revising the language curriculum for primary schools. I hope it will re-examine this matter and recommend the programme's retention. Some people tell me it will cost more to wind down the scheme than to continue it.

The Minister cannot say this is a pilot project because the cap was lifted in 2007. Since then, 200 more schools have joined the scheme. Ireland is the only country in Europe, apart from Scotland, where foreign languages are not a mandatory part of the curriculum. We need this initiative more than ever. Students leaving our education system need strong literacy, numeracy, language and ICT skills. An article by Colm O'Rourke, the well-known teacher and Gaelic football commentator, refers to the PayPal announcement and other high-tech jobs. Many people talk about the need for language skills at primary level also and I hope the Minister will re-examine this.

Minister for Education and Skills (Deputy Ruairí Quinn)

I thank Deputy Kitt for raising this issue and I welcome the opportunity to clarify the position of the decision taken in budget 2012. As part of the budget 2012 decisions, the modern languages in primary schools initiative will cease at the end of the 2011-12 school year. The savings from this measure will go towards the cost of implementing the new national literacy and numeracy strategy, which is a key commitment in the programme for Government. Since becoming Minister for Education and Skills, I have spoken repeatedly about the need to raise educational standards. In terms of curriculum reform, the priorities in the period ahead are to strengthen achievement in literacy and numeracy, to implement reforms in maths, Irish and science and to progress junior cycle reforms at second level.

The modern languages in primary schools initiative was a pilot scheme involving approximately 550 schools and has been operating since 1998. It has not been possible for other schools to join the pilot project for a number of years and the way in which it operated was not capable of being rolled out to all 3,200 primary schools. The decision to end the scheme was based in part on policy advice from a 2008 report by the NCCA, which identified serious issues with curricular overload at primary level. The advice of the NCCA was that modern languages should not be part of the primary school curriculum as an additional and separate subject. The advice on curriculum overload predated the wake-up call on literacy and numeracy from the PISA results. I am taking on board that advice and I am happy that we need to focus on literacy and numeracy. The entire primary curriculum is currently being reviewed by the NCCA in the context of the national literacy and numeracy strategy. The €2.5 million in savings from this measure will go towards the cost of implementing the new national strategy, the total cost of which is approximately €19 million. The 17% of schools currently in the initiative, who have had even more time demands than others in a crowded curricular space, should as a result be better placed to deliver under the strategy.

The focus of the review will be on how best to enhance children's learning in these areas, provide a clear delineation of the learning outcomes required and integrate into the infant cycle the learning experiences from Aistear, the curriculum framework for early childhood education. At post primary level, targeted support is provided to schools to enable them to diversify language provision with a particular focus on Spanish, Japanese, Russian and Italian. Other languages taught at second level include French, German and Arabic. Participation in foreign languages, relative to other subjects, remains high.

The vast majority of students are studying two languages and are therefore developing core skills which will serve them well in future language learning over their lifespan, and there are many opportunities outside the second level system for people to resume language learning.

Deputy Michael P. Kitt

I thank the Minister for his reply. I referred to PayPal. Its vice president said when the jobs announcement was made that, "In the last two weeks and months I have been looking for a number of potential locations in Europe and Ireland. However, due to the rich talent and language skills of the workforce in Ireland we decided it was the best place where we wanted to do business". PayPal also encouraged those without languages and the unemployed to apply for jobs. It said it was very confident that people who had language skills would be those they would want to employ. I understand more projects are coming down the road.

I very much welcome the literacy and numeracy initiative. There was a school library grant which, I am sorry to say, the last Government did away with. I understand €2 million was involved. I would like to see the Minister reconsider the initiative. An allocation of even €1 million would provide €40,000 to every county. The great library service we have allows 15 of the same book to be lent to schools, which enables them to do projects. I criticised the former Minister for the decision. The school library service will come to a halt because books will not be replaced and more fund-raising will be required.

The expert group that reported last Tuesday on jobs, markets and opportunities stated most advertised positions were in sales and ICT and third level qualifications are required. Foreign languages, particularly German and Nordic languages, continue to be in demand. That is the most recent report I have seen. The Minister should take what it said about foreign languages on board.

Deputy Ruairí Quinn

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I understand the concern that has been expressed by many well-intentioned people about this. We have been codding ourselves in this country for some time about the extraordinary quality of our education system. Other countries have been devoting a lot of time to reform and improving their systems. As a consequence, we have dropped much further than most people realise from a literacy ranking of fifth in the world league to seventeenth.

All of the education advice I have received over the past year and before I became Minister was that competency in literacy and numeracy are key predictors for educational outcomes as people move through formal education and into the adult career of their choice. We have to get those basic components right. The focus of attention is on that area. At a time when this country has lost its economic sovereignty and we have to reduce overall expenditure we have to make priority choices. I did not make this choice lightly and knew it would disrupt and disappointed some people, but in a world where choices have to be made I made the right choice.

Deputy Michael P. Kitt

Will the Minister consider the school libraries grant?

Deputy Ruairí Quinn

I will.

Social Welfare Benefits

Deputy Catherine Murphy

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this topic and the Minister for being here to listen and respond. The State should not pay more than market rents and rents should not be kept artificially high. I agree that affects all renters, including those not in receipt of rent assistance. We are on the same page on that.

Renting private property is not a long-term solution. There was a major missed opportunity over the past 15 years to deal with the supply side. I accept we are in a country which does not have the money to put ideal solutions in place. The situation must be managed. I know there will be a one-stop shop which should help matters. I see people in difficulty every single week. I have a couple of boxes of tissues on the counter of my office because people come to see me in a terribly distressed state over what has happened. There is no nuanced approach to some parts of the country in regard to the limits on rent assistance.

For two adults and two children living in Lucan or south Dublin the allowance is €925 a month. In Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth, an area which has a population equivalent to that of Waterford City and which is very much a suburb of Dublin, the allowance is €725 a month. No properties are available for that kind of money. I looked at www.daft.ie earlier and noted there were 62 three-bedroom properties available in Kildare, but not one in the three towns to which I referred.

There is also the issue of landlords not accepting rent assistance. There is no overhang of properties in those towns because most were sold off the plans. No NAMA-based solutions are in the offing. People have to look much further afield which means they may have to move their children to other towns. This creates a series of problems. Many schools are oversubscribed and it is very difficult to set up a child with special needs with additional resources in a new place. They are also being taken away from their friends.

There are quite a lot of properties advertised on www.daft.ie in south Kildare which one could rent for €725 a month but one cannot get them in north Kildare. The changes will be counter-productive in terms of the savings to the State if children require supports to be moved from schools. I understand the Department made a decision on a county by county basis but there can be variations within counties.

Some 43% of the housing waiting list is concentrated in six regions, Dublin City, south Dublin, Cork City, Cork county, Kildare and Fingal. The bottom 3% accounts for only 3% of the list. Some counties are affected more than others. There must be a more nuanced approach. I ask the Minister to consider the issue seriously. The whole country will not need to be reviewed, but the Department can be made aware of people who have been told to vacate properties within eight weeks. In many cases there is nowhere for them to vacate to.

Minister for Social Protection (Deputy Joan Burton)

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. The new maximum rent limits were set after an analysis of the most up to date market data available. The emphasis of the rent limit review was to ensure that maximum value for money for tenants and the taxpayer was achieved while at the same time ensuring that people on rent supplement were not priced out of the market for good quality private rented accommodation.

As the Department currently funds approximately 40% of the private rented sector - about 95,000 people are in receipt of rent supplement and we will spend over €0.5 billion on it this year - it is essential that State support for rents are kept under review, reflect current market conditions and do not distort the market in way that could increase rent prices for others such as low paid workers and students.

Where a claim is under review and the rent is above the new maximum limit, the customer is being asked to contact the landlord to renegotiate the rent. Where a landlord does not agree to reduce the rent to the new rates, I have specifically asked that departmental officials discuss the options open to the tenant, up to and including seeking alternative accommodation.

The Department is monitoring the impact of the implementation of the new limits. If Deputy Murphy has examples of children having to change school as a result of the change to the limits, she should pass the information on to the Department as soon as possible. I recognise what she is saying about differences from area to area. This was built into the study and we will take this into account.

Although the new limits have only been in place for two months, the current trends would suggest that the market is adjusting and the level of availability at the new limits is increasing.

The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to eligible tenants living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. Since 2005, rent supplement expenditure has increased from €369 million to a provisional outturn of €503 million in 2011. The number of persons claiming the allowance increased from 60,200 in 2005 to over 96,800 at the end of 2011, representing a 61% increase. The Deputy has acknowledged how difficult the economic circumstances are.

On the question of the clustering of rented properties, I am sure the Deputy will agree that rent supplement is not a long-term solution for those with a housing need. The Government has effectively two initiatives to deal with long-term reliance on rent supplement: the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, which has been in operation since 2004; and the new housing policy initiative, as announced by my colleagues, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Minister of State responsible for housing and planning, on 16 June 2011. The full implementation of these initiatives will address concerns about social mix and the clustering of social accommodation, allowing rent supplement to return to being a short-term income support payment.

Deputy Catherine Murphy

Websites such as www.daft.ie show that people are being priced out of the market. There are no alternatives. I will certainly send the Minister a note on some of the cases related to children. From my experience, the tenant must always relocate; there has been no realistic alternative to date, although I accept we are in the early days.

I have carried out an analysis of the RAS properties. Kildare County Council was struggling to obtain RAS houses in the part of County Kildare to which I refer. There were other parts in which it was able to get them. There are only 1,100 RAS houses but there is a housing waiting list of 6,047. Circumstances are worse than those in Fingal.

The problem is that there is no RAS option in the part of the county in question because the turnover of houses is minuscule. Where there is a turnover of RAS houses, because people get a job or decide to rent privately, there is some freedom. I ask the Minister to examine the problem in the part of the county to which I refer. If the Department considers the market information that is available to me, I am 100% certain it will find the information I find. I check it regularly. The problem must be managed while we are in a position in which there is no better option. There is a problem; it is not a national problem but there are problems in small parts of the country. The area to which I refer has a serious one.

Deputy Joan Burton

I would be very grateful if the Deputy forwarded me details of the cases about which she is most concerned. The study carried out by the Department was carried out very much in conjunction with community welfare officers, who are now officers of the Department of Social Protection. The information used was check-marked against all the county information available on rates of rent and appropriate rates.

Our housing comprises 40% of that in the housing market. There has been an extraordinary collapse in house values. Evidence from the private market shows that good tenants get reductions in rent. I appreciate it is difficult for somebody on rent supplement to face negotiating a deal with his landlord. Ultimately, however, if we overpay, we drive up rents for individuals such as workers and students, who are paying rent from their wages or parents' incomes. If the Deputy supplies me with the relevant information, my Department will certainly monitor the problem. I am determined to obtain more value for taxpayers' money with regard to rents. Given the extraordinary fall in house values, it would be quite extraordinary not to have better value available and affordability in respect of rent supplement. The evidence is that landlords are responding by giving better rental value to taxpayers.

Departmental Expenditure

Deputy Eamonn Maloney

In case we are at odds, the Minister should note that the focus of the media and public at present is very much on the retirement of public service personnel. This is a separate issue from the one on which I want to focus, namely, bad expenditure practices in the public service that affect the taxpayer. Most members of the public refer to abuses of taxpayers' money in Departments, local authorities, etc. People believe these abuses are "part of the culture", a uniquely Irish phrase. The practices have nothing to do with culture; they involve the abuse of our taxes by a small number of people who are devoid of civic responsibility.

On mainland Europe, one admires the ways in which governments and public services can cut costs and protect the taxpayer from abuses or bad practices. When the Minister, Deputy Howlin, first took over his Department, I focused on certain sentences he used. Consequently, I believe he understands where I am coming from. In a very bad and deep recession, a different approach is required because there is not enough money. Whatever money is available is provided at the behest of our generous neighbours, who, of course, want it to be repaid. After 90 years of independence, we have an opportunity to change our habits. This must be taken as savings are required. The Department has engaged in change but the public should know about it. That is the purpose of my raising this matter.

It was public servants who brought this matter to my attention, but not only when I was canvassing 12 months ago. They highlighted bad practices in Departments and local authorities. Fair play to them because, by and large, most public and civil servants are quite decent, honest people. I would be interested to hear the Minister's comments in this regard.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Deputy Brendan Howlin)

I thank Deputy Maloney for raising this issue, although the impact of departmental savings is a fairly broad topic. Having listened to him, however, I now understand the focus of his commentary, which certainly merits some discussion. On taking office, one of the things I did was to have a cross-departmental review, which culminated in the Comprehensive Expenditure Report 2012-14 published on 5 December 2011. I also published the capital infrastructure plan on 10 November 2011. Meanwhile, the implementation body's publication of the public service agreement - the so-called Croke Park agreement - progress report was published on 17 November 2011. The public service reform plan, which examined all the public service reforms we wanted to make, was also published on 17 November 2011.

That is the way we will look at bringing about real reforms on the issues referred to by the Deputy. The general public and public servants have been talking about tackling issues like abuse, waste and bad practices. As the Deputy knows, I have set up a website to which people - particularly those on the front line who understand what is going on in the public service - have been invited to make submissions. We got an extraordinary variety of good submissions which have been incorporated into the comprehensive expenditure review. All that documentation is available on my Department's website.

The ceilings we have set will ensure that efficiencies and reformed work practices will play a full part in contributing to what needs to happen in any event, which is budgetary consolidation. Deputy Maloney will recall the issue of performance budgeting which we included in the Revised Estimates Volume 2012, published last week. It was an initiative that now involves almost all Departments. The annual Estimates of expenditure have been re-cast to ensure full alignment with Departments' statements of strategy and to include performance information against each of the high-level objectives set out in the programme.

The old accounting mechanism of allocating a volume of money to a particular budget line is now accompanied - people will have read the tome that arrived on their desks last week - with an actual expected outcome for that money. I hope Oireachtas committees will be able to follow that to ensure that the money voted will have the specifically expressed outcomes in terms of quantities of individuals to be treated, cases to be processed, or specific outcomes to be expected.

The new Estimates offer a much more open way of doing business. The performance budgeting initiative is just one wave of a broad tide of reform which I hope is sweeping over an age-old system for managing public expenditure. One commentator said this was the first time such fundamental reform had happened since Victorian times.

In last December's comprehensive expenditure report, I introduced a new medium-term expenditure framework that sets fixed expenditure ceilings for every Government Department for 2013 and, on an indicative basis, for 2014. Last month, I wrote to the chairpersons of all Oireachtas select committees dealing with Estimates, inviting them to begin the process of engagement with Departments on how next year's Estimates should be shaped. It would also be useful for Oireachtas committees to listen to the front line experience of workers and to put that to Departments in framing next year's Estimates.

Taking the whole gamut of reforms the Government has laid out, the entire system of public expenditure is undergoing a sea change of which the achievement of expenditure savings is just one element, albeit an important one. The focus remains on delivering the best possible services, eliminating waste and abuse, and ensuring that we perform at a world-class level.

Deputy Eamonn Maloney

I thank the Minister for his comments and congratulate him on his Department's website. Of the people who brought about five cases to my attention in the past 12 months, four of them have taken up the Minister's offer which is very good. For example, a mid-ranking manager in a large Dublin hospital handed me a piece of paper and - almost shamefully, as an ordinary conscientious taxpayer - described what was going on in his workplace, which was a waste of public money. Virtually all public servants want these sort of abuses to stop. It operates marginally in other jurisdictions. I am sure the Minister is aware of the completely different monitoring system in the UK. His initiative, however, is the first of its kind in the history of the State. He mentioned a commentator's reference to Victorian times, but I am not a big fan of Queen Victoria so I will not praise her in the House.

I should have qualified my earlier comments by saying that both the Minister and I are public servants, so we come into that, except that in our case we are temporary or part-time.

Deputy Brendan Howlin

Contract.

Deputy Eamonn Maloney

Only four years left.

Deputy Brendan Howlin

Or not.

Deputy Eamonn Maloney

Or not.

Deputy Barry Cowen

You can have the four.

Deputy Eamonn Maloney

We sometimes forget it, but I meant to say that we should be included in this subject matter. By the way, I drafted this Topical Issue before the cartridge-gate saga, although I do not want to go down this road. Without a doubt, that is a typical example of how the public perceive the Minister, myself and everyone else in this House. It is up to all of us to bring a halt to all those practices and not just in here, but throughout the public service. Eventually, we have to reach a stage where people realise that the use of the phrase "Ah, it's the State that's paying for it" - the old colonial language that Irish people use - is not good enough. Forget the State, it is the ordinary taxpayer who is paying for it, so we have to change that mindset.

If I understood the Minister correctly, he said that when the programme period is over he will size up the matter himself. That would be a good exercise for the public and will perhaps focus some journalists' minds on the meaningful things that are done within the public service.

Deputy Brendan Howlin

I fully agree with Deputy Maloney. Transparency and openness are the best antidotes to abuse. When things are understood to be open and accessible, people will be much more mindful of how they use resources. There must be a balance, however, because we must be able to justify the use of resources as well. It is true that Ministers are reluctant to use the Government jet, which always surprises me because we paid for it and it is sitting on a runway.

Deputy Eamonn Maloney

I did not know we had one.

Deputy Brendan Howlin

We have pilots that are paid for, while Ministers are now saying: "No, I'll take commercial flights and leave that there." We need to have a different approach that is efficient, mindful of scarce resources and not wasteful. I fully agree with the Deputy in that regard.

My final point concerns the management of it, and Deputy Maloney touched on cartridge-gate. It is important to give authority to managers, whether in the Oireachtas or elsewhere, simply to alert people to say "You can't do that". If this is the accepted norm, they will not only have the authority but the responsibility to manage resources properly and well. That should happen across the public service. It is part of the process that is happening right now in the reforms agenda. We have a long way to go because, to abuse the word the Deputy used himself, there is a culture change. The vast majority of those in the public service understand that, as taxpayers, they want good value and want to eliminate waste. That is the objective of this Government.

National Office for Suicide Prevention

Deputy Dan Neville

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise the important issue of the appointment of a director to the National Office for Suicide Prevention following the retirement in October of Mr. Geoff Day, who was appointed to the post in 2005. I am concerned that in five months no replacement has been appointed. I wish to recognise the service of the acting director, Catherine Brogan, who is also the national planning specialist for mental health.

However, a full appointment is urgent, not least because of a 25% increase in suicide levels in the past two years. The latest statistics for 2012 show 486 people died from suicide with 127 non-determined deaths. It is internationally recognised that it is more accurate to include non-determined deaths as suicide which, if applied to the 2010 figures, mean more than 600 people died from suicide. For comparison purposes, 185 people died in road accidents. The success of the Road Safety Authority should be a template for how to tackle the issue of suicide.

On numerous occasions over the past 12 months, I called for an increase in the budget for the National Office for Suicide Prevention. I sincerely welcome the 2012 increase from €4.7 million to €7.7 million, the extra €3 million coming from the €35 million allocated to the implementation budget for A Vision for Change. With such a substantial increase to the office's budget, it is important a director is appointed to apply this investment to ensure there is a planned and detailed programme with clear targets and objectives to reduce suicide and related issues. The programme for implementation must also have checks and balances to deal with other areas such as parasuicide. Last year, 9,630 people attended accident and emergency departments due to parasuicide. Conservative estimates put the figure for attempted suicide or self-harm between 60,000 and 70,000 last year.

The person appointed to the directorship should have a clear knowledge and understanding of the areas of suicide, international and national research such as that of the National Suicide Research Foundation in Cork, the prevention of suicide and bereavement of suicide support. It is also important the director has a role outside the Health Service Executive, HSE. Societal factors and others apply to the whole area of suicide prevention. There must be an understanding on the part of the director about the involvement of organisations and other Departments, apart from the mental health section of the Department of Health, such as the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, in suicide prevention. The director must not have an approach that confines the office to the HSE where it is stationed but one that includes broader societal agencies in suicide prevention. These broader societal factors are mirrored in the office's implementation programme. It is absolutely urgent a director is appointed to organise, implement and execute that programme.

Deputy Minister of State at the Department of Health ( Róisín Shortall)

I thank Deputy Neville for raising this important issue for which we all share his concerns. I am taking this topical issue on behalf of my colleague, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, Minister of State with responsibility for mental health issues, who cannot be present today.

The National Office for Suicide Prevention was established by the HSE in 2005 to implement Reach Out, the national strategy for action on suicide prevention. The office is guided by an advisory group comprising individuals with considerable knowledge and expertise around suicide prevention and mental health promotion. The work of the office is constantly evolving and its programme of activities is focused on evidence-based interventions and also involves the funding of new research and pilot projects.

My ministerial colleague, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, is very much aware the national office plays a key role in developing and supporting initiatives related to suicide prevention. Since the launch of Reach Out and the establishment of the national office, there has been a significant amount of cross-sectorial working which has resulted in considerable advances in suicide prevention.

Initiatives include the ASIST and Safetalk training programmes, the tough economic times programme and the mental health awareness campaigns. Support has also been given to voluntary organisations in their work on suicide prevention. All-island co-operation in the areas of promoting positive mental health and tackling the issue of suicide has been promoted. Funding has also been provided for several suicide community assessment nurses, SCAN, to work in primary care to provide an effective and co-ordinated response for people who are in distress. A working group has been established to address the issue of reducing access to the means of suicide and self-harm in a national and co-ordinated way. In addition, the national office recently established a working group to review again the current activities in this area and to determine the priorities within suicide prevention to ensure we maximise the available resources.

The former director of the national office, Geoff Day, retired last September. I thank him for his contribution and commitment over the years in the area of suicide prevention. Having regard to the importance of the work of the office, the HSE appointed an acting director while expressions of interest were sought for the permanent position. The closing date for receipt of applications was 3 February and interviews will take place later this month. It is expected the appointment to the permanent position should take place shortly thereafter.

The Government recognises the issue of suicide prevention is one of the most urgent challenges currently facing society. It is committed to further developing our mental health and suicide prevention services. This commitment was clearly shown in budget 2012 which provided for a special allocation of €35 million for mental health in line with programme for Government commitments. Funding from this special allocation will be used primarily to strengthen the community mental health teams in both adult and children's mental health services and to implement prioritised suicide prevention measures.

I thank Deputy Neville for raising this matter.

Deputy Dan Neville

I thank the Minister for her response. It is important the work of the suicide resource officers who are allocated to the former health board areas should come under the auspices of the National Office for Suicide Prevention. It is vital their work, which also includes suicide bereavement and promoting good mental health, is co-ordinated with the office. We have the fourth highest suicide rate in Europe after Lithuania, Finland and Estonia. We have a very serious youth suicide problem. We require a programme headed by a person at the level of assistant national director. The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, promised that a national director of mental health would be appointed to oversee mental health services. The appointment must be made immediately. I have expressed my repeated concern on the allocation of the €35 million to ensure the objectives of the Government and those outlined in A Vision for Change are implemented according to the will of the Government and best practice. The appointment of the director is vital, as is the appointment of the director of the National Office for Suicide Prevention.

Deputy Róisín Shortall

I acknowledge the expertise and commitment of Deputy Neville in this important area and the tremendous work he has done in that regard. We accept the point he made. We are determined to ensure that mental health services are provided locally at community level for both adults and children. That is why there has been such a clear commitment on the additional funding for this year's budget, notwithstanding the difficult economic situation generally.

I assure the Deputy that the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, is determined to develop the services to meet the considerable demand that exists. She has been particularly vocal about the need to establish a national director for mental health services. That will happen in the coming months. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.