I will talk about mental health services and the lack of any facilities or plans in the area. To listen to Senator Freeman this morning, one would think we had it planned but we have nothing planned. I will talk about mental health in Ireland in 2018. There are very few proper facilities. Family members, young and old, have to go to Northern Ireland or England to get proper facilities. At second level, children with mental health issues are being prescribed drugs. If they are not willing or if parents do not want their kids to take these drugs they are told to take them out of school and educate them at home. That is the status of mental health services in Ireland in 2018. Last Christmas in my constituency of Meath West, we had family members on the banks of the Boyne and Blackwater rivers waiting to hear news of family members who had disappeared. The other night I lost a friend with mental health issues; it was sad to see Colin suffer over the past few months. The services did absolutely nothing. We have put €30 million to €40 million into mental health services in the past two years in two budgets but it has gone past the day of prescribing medicines and drugs and letting people back out on the streets, saying "There you go, you're all right now, off you go." We need proper facilities. We need a plan. Perhaps in certain cases we have to look at the way it was done years ago. I do not think letting people with mental health issues back out on the streets does them or their families any good. We really have to look at this issue. I would like a discussion in the House and to bring in the Minister and look at a plan for the way forward in mental health services in Ireland.

Strangely enough I also want to talk about an ex-British soldier. I am sure the Acting Leader, political animal that he is, will be familiar with Harry Leslie Smith who finds himself gravely ill in hospital in Canada. For colleagues who do not know - I am sure they are a minority - Harry was born in 1923 in abject poverty in a time before the NHS in England. He fought in the Second World War as an RAF pilot. Even at this advanced stage of life in his 90s, he is the most active of activists in international solidarity and social justice, supporting the plight of refugees all around the world. He has gone to visit refugees and also taken on the culture and ideology that tries to stop these poor unfortunate people from travelling to sanctuary and safety wherever in the world they are. I became familiar with him via Twitter because even in his 90s he was as vocal as he could be about the rising tide of fascism in Europe and North America. He was still prepared at this stage in his life, as he was in his 20s, to take a stand against it and encourage all of us to take a stand against it. He is gravely ill in Canada. He was just about to take part in another visit to refugee camps and unfortunately his son, John, is now using Harry's Twitter to tell us about the day-to-day situation they find themselves in as a family.

Harry Leslie Smith has been a champion of the NHS in Britain.

He has alerted the British people to the impending destruction and dismantling of that most precious and inspiring creation of the British state and people. The strange thing is that his Twitter handle is @harryslaststand but I am sure this is not his last stand. We should all follow his example and take that stand for what he believes in and has stood for, his principles and his approach to life.