David Burns writes:
Following student protests on Govt diversion of €12,000,000 from 2016 mental health budget, 200 UCD Medicine students have made the following video to lobby for increased funding Ireland’s mental health services.
UCD students have raised over €100,000 for registered charity Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland so far this year. It took them 6 months to raise the money and there is a lot of anger on campus over how few TDs it takes to debate funding cuts of €12,000,000.
Ireland has one of the highest rates of youth suicide in Europe but depends largely on charities for a response rather than government policy. It is a disgraceful situation that the good work of UCD students to support one of these charities, Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland, is being completely undermined by huge Govt funding cuts.