My Work Experience With The ISSU: Mental Health Debate in the Dáil.
On the evening of Tuesday the 15th of November myself and some mental health campaigners from The Irish Second-Level Students Union and other groups such as Mental Health Reform attended a debate in Leinster house .To get into leinster house we had to be invited and we were invited by mental helath reform to be some of the names on ther list of people who could enter and watch the debate from the public gallery. Once we got by the front gates we headed into leinster house where we were stopped at the security desk to be given our public gallery access badges. We were then brought in to the public gallery by one of the ushers this is where we would spend the next two hours looking down on the debate happening.The motion was brought forward by Fianna Fáil’s James Browne TD who is the party spokesperson for the mental health. The debate was about how the government had only given 15 million for 2017 for mental health developments in our health system in the last budget. But only a couple of months previous in July 2016 the estimate from the Department of Health indicated that the required resources needed to fully implement A Vision For Change are 177.3 million or 35.4 million per annum over five years. As you can see a significant increase in mental health spending is needed to succeed in this 5 year plan to implement a Vision For Change.Your probably thinking “What is A Vision for Change?”. A Vision for Change is a model of what the mental health service should be like in Ireland. Its a framework of positive mental health across the country and giving accessible, community- based, specialist services for people with mental health issues.
The debate began at 8 o’clock with deputy Browne giving his statement about the motion. Fianna Fáil is calling on the Government to set out how exactly it intends on achieving full implementation of the country’s mental health strategy. “We have made it clear that mental health spending can’t be put on the back burner, so it’s time for Fine Gael and their Independent colleagues to spell out their plan for mental health services.”.It was then the turn of Minister of State for Mental Health and older people Fine Gael's Deputy Helen McEntee to have her say. She began to say how she and her party did not oppose this motion. She had to defend herself and her party and she did this by talking of how €900 million would be spent overall in the mental health sector this year she also encouraged her colleagues in the Dail to go visit the central mental hospital which her party had been helping. She had a very hard job trying to defend herself and to do this she had to try make known to her fellow TD’s the work her and her party had done for mental health in this country. After this it was time for TD’s present from parties such as Sinn Fein, Green party,Labour, Social democrats,Anti austerity and Independents to have their say on the motion. They all had the same sort of points along the lines of how mental health is a considerable factor in the number of deaths in our country and that an Accident and Emergency room is no place for someone with a mental illness to attend. Deputy Browne concluded the debate saying ”I am glad the Government will not oppose this motion. The motion seeks an urgent review of the budget allocation. It seeks a multi-annual plan to set out how A Vision for change will be set.”“We do not want to be back here again. The Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, has our support but she needs to ensure that the people needing the services are also getting support.” Said Deputy Browne.At the end of it I felt that this funding without a doubt is despertaley needed in our country so we can catch up with the reforms set out in A Vision For Change. I also think we have a government who are trying their best to make mental health one of their main priorities and are doing all in their power to get this issue sorted. We can not let this matter get debated again and again, peoples’ lives are at stake and lives have already been lost and without this desperately needed funding we can not help our country tackle mental illness.I personally thought the debate was needed so we could secure the needed funds for our mental health system in Ireland. But I do think the debate was stretched out by all the TD’s voicing the same opinions over and over agian just in different ways. I think this was a matter that could of been sorted quickly and easily becaise it is quite clear that this country is in desperate need of these funds to imrove our mental health system.By Seán Savage
Leaving Cert Biology
Jessica - Ordinary Level
Well, Biology wasn't to bad, it was a hundred times better than I was expecting it to be! After spending an hour panic studying in the break beforehand convincing myself I knew nothing it turned out I do know one or two things! I was delighted to see the trusty genetics and ecology questions there, especially the little ecology paragraph with all the answers in front of us!Female reproduction also made an appearance which is never a bad thing! Have to say though after finding out that the digestive system has made the cut 9 years running and spending so much time on it over the past few weeks I was very disappointed it wasn't there!After hearing the few people who stuck with higher I'm very glad for ordinary level! I'm really happy that its over with now! Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. Blogs are updated daily by 6.30 pm on scheduled examination dates.
Leaving Cert Maths Paper 1
Sarah - Higher Level
After last years fiasco over the Paper 1, and with the roll-out of the project maths scheme, it is fair enough to assume that quite a few eyes were on the first paper of maths. However, this years paper didn't really throw anything too shocking our way, thankfully. Considering the amount of people who were horrified by the absence of Heaney and Plath in yesterday's English Paper 2, and the Geography paper which I heard threw a lot of people (I don't do Geography myself), it would have been a little too much, too soon for many students.So there I was. Five minutes to two, with my two calculators (I forgot my calculator the morning of Maths Paper 1 in Junior Cert- I was NOT going to get caught again) and about forty pens, I was ready to go. Despite the natural butterflies, most of which were quenched by copious amounts of Rescue Remedy, I was totally ready to go! I knew what questions I would do, namely 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 with 5 as back-up, and I was confident that I could answer them well!As I settled into the paper, my confidence flickered, but nothing too major! I kept my focus on the question I was doing without looking ahead, because I didn't want to get thrown by something unfamiliar. The first question was fine until (c)(ii), which I simply hadn't a clue of. It was only ten past two at that point, so after few attempts I moved on, with the intention of returning to complete it later on. The exact same thing happened in question 2: it took ten minutes to do the question down as far as part (c)(iii), at which point I was lost, so I moved on once again. Now, when the exact same thing happened in my third question, I got a biteen suspicious. So, on a whim, I decided to chance questions four and five (for the craic like)! Although our teacher covered Sequences and Series with us, I hadn't paid attention as I had no intentions of doing the question. I basically made up my own mathematical rules, but from my vague recollection of what we had done in class, I reckoned it'd “be grand”, which is my latest motto. Despite not having much success in any of my part c's, I did the paper, went back and worked on some questions and handed it up at half past four on the dot.Overall, I thought the paper was reasonably fair and well-rounded. Some questions required a couple of readings and a bit of thought, such as Q3(c)(ii) and but in short, this paper suited those who weren't doing Integration, as the (c) part was an unholy disaster of a question! I'm sure the marks will be rejigged for the “bell-curve” because as far as I know, no one could get it out! Here's hoping for a better paper next Monday, I'm optimistic that we'll get a nice paper to welcome in the new system (or at the very least it will be marked fairly). I'll be posting again on Monday about the much anticipated Paper 2, but until then, chill out! The first week is officially over, so reward yourself! :) x
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. Blogs are updated daily by 6.30 pm on scheduled examination dates.