Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

The incidence of suicide is shocking. There were 5,270 suicides between 1996 and 2006, and that was during the good times. Since the onset of the economic crisis the incidence has dramatically increased, with 527 people taking their own lives in 2009, which is a 25% increase on what is already a shockingly high incidence of suicide. In the second quarter of 2010 there were 127 suicides. It is not an exaggeration to call this a slow massacre of people who are driven to that level of despair that they would take their own lives. Beyond the incidence of suicide there is a huge incidence of self-harm, suicide attempts, all of which have increased dramatically in the past few years.

Every tragic case of suicide, of a person taking his or her own life, has unique and complex factors that often relate to people's family backgrounds, particular difficulties in their lives, histories of mental health and so on. One cannot always do something about those individual circumstances. One cannot legislate for everything, for all the complexities of human existence. However, all serious analysis shows there are patterns to this and factors which we as a society can influence, which can and do have a tangible effect on the degree of suicide, mental health problems in a society and despair and alienation, essentially that people feel can lead them to these extreme courses of action.

Specifically, all serious analysis shows that we have a disproportionately high incidence of suicide and self-harm among our young people. It shows that there is a strong link between suicide and pre-existing mental health problems and, very importantly, that there is a very strong link between suicide and unemployment. The dramatic increase in suicide and self-harm during the past few years since the onset of the economic crisis bears out that there is a strong link between suicide and unemployment. These are factors we can do something about and given the tragic nature and huge scale of suicide, we have an obligation to prioritise very serious action to change the situation and influence the factors over which our society and us, as elected representatives, have some control.

In this regard, it is clear that cuts kill. It is as simple as that. Social welfare cuts and cuts to invalidity pensions and disability payments all disproportionately hit the vulnerable sectors of our society and those sectors where the incidence of suicide is highest. Recognising that these cuts kill and that we cannot seriously address this problem unless we reverse cuts in areas which affect young people, vulnerable people and the unemployed is a start to our being able to impact on addressing this problem. Health cuts affect people with mental health problems who need our assistance.

In Sallynoggin, a working-class area of my constituency, the local library was recently closed. The library service is being massively affected by the public service recruitment embargo because its staff numbers are being gradually reduced. The first library to go as a result of what is happening was that in Sallynoggin. The library in question was not great in the context of the number of hours for which it opened and the quality of service on offer. However, it did provide a service. The profile of Sallynoggin library was completely different from those of other libraries because young and unemployed people frequented it and used it as a social centre. It was a place where they could go and represented one of the few resources or amenities in the area. As already stated, it was the first library to be closed.

If one does not give young people something to do or a place to go or if one does not provide those who have lost their jobs with the resources to find new employment or educate or upskill themselves, it leads to despair. We campaigned against the closure of Sallynoggin library, stating that it would affect people and cause further alienation in an area which already suffers disproportionately from unemployment, youth alienation and other problems.

There has been a 15% cut in the funding available to family resource centres. One of the consequences of that is that the, albeit inadequate, service whereby psychiatrists are present in such centres for a few hours each week has been adversely affected. Family resource centres should be the first port of call for those who are in despair, who are suffering or who are developing suicidal tendencies. These people should have access to a facility close by where they can obtain counselling. However, the funding for such facilities is being cut. I wonder whether the Government intends to reverse these cuts.

Consideration should be given to the group which comprises taxi drivers. There have been some 34 suicides in recent years among taxi drivers and these were directly attributable to the disastrous policy of deregulating taxis. As a result of that policy, there are now more taxis in the city of Dublin than there are in New York city. This was the madness of the process of deregulation introduced by the then Minister, Mary Harney who, ironically, later became Minister for Health and Children. Are we going to regulate the taxi profession in such a way as to ensure that taxi drivers will not feel such despair that they will be prompted to take their own lives?

We need to reverse the cuts that affect the vulnerable in society. In addition, we must prioritise job creation. There is a need for immediate and dramatic action to create jobs - rather than worrying so much about bailing out banks - if we are going to deal with the social problems and alienation that lead to such despair that people consider taking their own lives.

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