Mental Health Services
Seanad Éireann — 2025-10-15
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Kieran O'Donnell (FG), Limerick City

I too welcome the members of the men's shed. I have no doubt there are some great rugby players in the group. They are welcome to Leinster House and the beautiful Seanad Chamber.
Several factors need to be considered in the development of a new services location for services like Jigsaw. A proposal for a new location requires a detailed business case, premises, support from the regional HSE management and necessary funding to resource the staffing of the service. Any proposal also requires agreement from the HSE national child and youth mental health office in the context of agreeing new service priorities under the annual Estimates process and the development of the HSE national service plan for the next year. The Minister of State is very aware of the significant efforts by Senator O'Loughlin to secure a Jigsaw service for Kildare, including trying to secure a premises and arrange for representatives from Jigsaw to evaluate its suitability. The Minister of State is determined to ensure we have full and appropriate national coverage, so that no matter where a person lives in Ireland, they will receive face-to-face support from a physical area intervention service. It must be stressed that Jigsaw's online digital services are available to all young people in Ireland, at jigsaw.ie , no matter where they are located. Senator O'Loughlin can rest assured that the Minister of State will continue to work with her, the Department of Health and the HSE to ensure that young people in Kildare and every county in Ireland have easy access to intervention and care in the near future.
I will bring the issues Senator O'Loughlin has raised to the attention of the Minister of State. I have no doubt she will continue to work with the Senator regarding Jigsaw services in Kildare in general and more specifically in Newbridge.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-10-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-10-15