Debate contribution: Children’s Mental Health: Cross-departmental Cooperation

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 30 September 2024.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

30 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Children’s Mental Health: Cross-departmental Cooperation

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4564171

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. First, I thank those who spoke in the debate and those who have spoken on all the motions today. Two of our motions have passed thus far, albeit both were amended. We agreed with one of the amendments but were not so keen on the other one. I thank Members from all parties for the constructive way in which they approached the debate. We have said consistently that, in opposition, we intend to be constructive but that we will also be robust. Sometimes, that means that we are very robust, much to the displeasure of some of the Executive parties, but it also means that we use the time available to have constructive debates in the House. I think that we have largely had constructive debates today. I will touch on a few of the remarks made. I will not exhaustively go through everything that was said, because I have only five minutes. There is only a limited amount that any Government or set of elected politicians can do to effect change in something as subtle and variable as the mental health of our citizens, but, in a situation in which it is widely accepted that we have a serious and deepening mental health crisis that is particularly acute among our young people, it is incumbent on all of us to use every power that we have to do something about it. Diane Dodds strikingly and powerfully referred to the Northern Ireland life and times survey, which mentions the fact that 18% of 16-year-olds suffer from chronic physical or mental health challenges. Whether parents or not, we are all aware of the immense burden that our young people face, of the serious mental health challenges that we have and, as multiple Members have mentioned, of the severe challenges that the child and adolescent mental health service faces, including a lack of resources and a lack of ability to deliver. Multiple organisations, whether they are involved in providing children's services or in the mental health sector — that is, the organisations that were represented in an event in the Long Gallery today — have made it clear that the Children's Services Co-Operation Act 2015, which is referred to in the motion, has not been used to its full potential. Multiple Members who spoke, including Ms Forsythe and, I think, someone from Sinn Féin, said that it would perhaps have been more apt to make a specific call of the Health Minister. Of course, we have brought the Health Minister to the Chamber twice today to account for what his Department is doing. It is clear that section 8 of the legislation in question places a specific —.

I will in one second. It places a specific burden on the Department of Finance, and I am glad that the Minister has come to the Chamber to engage on this. I am happy to give way.

I appreciate that clarification.

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. Thank you very much for the extra minute, Mrs Dillon. It is important that we work together. Even those of us who are in opposition have an important job to do when it comes to delivering something like this. Our job is accountability, but also pushing policy and pushing the discussion in the right direction. That is what this afternoon is all about. It is not very often that Mrs Dodds and I are in agreement, but, on a couple of occasions during her speech, I found myself in thundering agreement with her. She said that, in many cases, the public genuinely do not care who delivers what service for them. That could not be more true. Most people do not know how many Departments there are in Northern Ireland. If we are honest, most people do not know what powers are devolved, what powers are not devolved, where there is cross-border responsibility or where a council does something; they only care about the services that they and their family receive. That is why we should all be about better working, and that is why this motion is robust and specific in calling the Minister of Finance to use her powers. That does not absolve any other Minister, specifically the Minister of Health or even the Minister of Education, with whom, under this legislation, lies the statutory responsibility to deliver the children and young people's strategy. It is important that there is "jointery". Without wishing to score points, I would say that we have heard two things during the debate. The first is broad-based commitment and seriousness on the issue, and I welcome that. Secondly, there is a slight tendency to say — as my colleague Patsy McGlone said in the previous debate — "This is terrible. Something must be done. Is someone going to do something about it?", and to slightly shift responsibility from one Minister to another. I did not hear that attitude from the Minister of Finance, and I commend her on that. I often challenge the Finance Minister, but, on this occasion, she was clear about where her responsibilities lie. It is important that we use whatever powers we have. It is nearly a decade since this specific piece of legislation was passed, which also created an obligation for the Executive to formulate their Programme for Government on the basis of the provisions and reporting mechanisms of the Act. I have not yet seen any clear evidence — we will be asking questions — as to whether the just-published draft Programme for Government has specifically drawn on what is in that Act, but that resource is there. The Assembly passed that Act a decade ago. Some of us were here then. I was not, but some of us were. The clear intention was that we would start to break down the pernicious traditional culture of silo working. I am afraid that, since the Assembly has returned, we have still seen too much silo working on occasion, and a tendency to say, "That's your Minister, and that's our Minister". Part of our job in opposition — I know that we occasionally, regularly or constantly irritate people, and we will keep doing that — is to say, "This is about outcomes for our citizens. It is not about whose Minister does this, whose Minister wants more budget or whose Minister hasn't seen what paper. It is about the outcome that we deliver for our citizens". That is fundamentally what the motion is about. In a world of technological advances, social media pressures, climate change and a range of other things, it is extremely challenging for people in a devolved legislature to transform the challenges that face our young people, but we can use every single lever — legislative, regulatory or financial — that we have to do it. I encourage Members to support the motion. Thank you very much to everybody who participated constructively in today's Opposition day.

1,161 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:12 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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