I welcome the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to the club. Sometimes he will get an easy ride and sometimes he will not. This issue was only brought to me late last night. What is known in Carrigtwohill in east Cork as the CDYS, the Cloyne Diocesan Youth Service, is facing closure because of a lack of funding. From the information I received, it is a youth cafe that may close by 22 July and it is down to funding. In my conversations with the co-ordinator for the area and also with the parents and a couple of young kids …

I thank the Minister for his reply. He will get to know me. I am straightforward and I do not mess around with politeness that is not needed. The Minister mentioned assessments, ETBs and so on. The first hurdle is Covid. If the virus comes back, will we blame Covid? I understand this matter was raised with the Minister at short notice but that is also the case with me. There is a bigger picture at play. What do I tell people in Carrigtwohill, east Cork and the Diocese of Cloyne, including the service providers and …

I congratulate the Ministers and welcome the opportunity to speak on this important motion. Housing was one of the biggest issues of February's general election. People who I met on the campaign told me they were put to the pin of their collar and mentally stressed. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were in power for the last four years and have failed to deliver affordable homes to rent or buy in my constituency of Cork East. As of today, there were just 333 properties to rent in County Cork. In my home town of Midleton, …

Yesterday, Peter Hughes of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, representing workers on the front line of our mental health services, called for an end to lip service and idle promises. As general secretary of the largest representative organisation for mental health workers, he is surely well placed to make such an appraisal of the past few years of the Government's and the political establishment's approach to the system. I join his call. This crisis has highlighted not just the gaps in our services, which are pla…