Conor Cusack: Government has not grasped severity of mental health crisis

Hurler and mental health campaigner Conor Cusack has said the Government has still not "grasped the severity" of the country’s mental health crisis and appealed for all parties to pump resources into this area.

The East Cork man, who sprang to national attention a year ago with a powerful blog post on his own mental health struggles, also revealed that he received a call earlier this year from a retired inter-county footballer who said he was staring at a tree in his garden and contemplating taking his life.

Drawing a direct contrast between the swift response of the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) to that episode and to the death of Galway hurler Niall Donohue, and the response of Government to the death by suicide of former junior minister Shane McEntee, he said the country had reached “a threshold” when it came to mental health.