Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Tá mé fíor-bhuíoch dóibh siúd a chuir an t-ábhar tábhachtach seo ar an chlár inniu. Tá an Teachta Dan Neville ag déanamh sár obair ar an ábhar seo le blianta anuas agus táimid buíoch dó. Mar adúirt cainteoirí eile, bhí ardú sa mhéad daoine a chuir lámh ina bás féin an bhliain seo caite, suas le 500 duine sa Stát seo agus suas le 300 eile sna Sé Contae. Ciallaíonn sin go bhfuair suas le 800 duine bás trí féinmharú agus go ndearna mílte eile díobháil dóibh féin. Is géarchéim náisiúnta uile Éireannach í seo. Tréaslaím go háirithe leis an Teachta Neville as an obair atá déanta aige agus tréaslaím fosta le teaghlaigh agus tuismitheoirí na daoine a fuair bás agus leis na scoileanna, múinteoirí agus daoine ag obair sna seirbhísí sláinte as an obair atá déanta acu go dtí seo.

One of the first groups which asked to meet me when I became a Deputy was PIPS, the Public Initiative for the Prevention of Suicide and Self Harm, which is based in Dundalk. I was conscious of this group because it was begun in north Belfast by a friend of mine whose young son took his own life. It is a voluntary organisation which was established in 2008 and publicly launched in 2009. It seeks, like many other voluntary organisations, to save lives and support those affected by suicide and self harm, and also to raise awareness about suicide. It works with bereaved families and provides crisis intervention. I commend all such groups across the island who work on this issue.

The issue of suicide was brought home to me very clearly. I was walking on the Falls Road when a woman called me into her home. She told me her son, who had been subjected to sex abuse, had attempted to take his own life a few times. I went in and talked to the young fellow. I listened to what he had to say and later went back to see him and provided him with some books. I tried to be a friend and to point out the futility of suicide, his responsibility to his siblings and so on, all in a very gentle and, I hope, helpful way. However, like everybody else here, I was very busy. One day, this young man met the perpetrator in the street and went home and killed himself. I went to the wake house and felt in some way that I had not done enough, that this was in some way something lacking in me, that I should have spent more time or found the space. It brought home to me how a parent, a partner or a sibling must feel that they did not spot the signs, did not know or did not do enough, and that this happened without any warning. Apart from the lives lost, there is the huge trauma for a family of guilt and the feeling they are in some way responsible.

To give some statistics, it is estimated a greater number of people have lost their lives through suicide than is recorded in the official statistics, which do not even deal with attempted suicides. There are numerous stories of people who try to take their own lives and fail to do so, and who do not then get proper help, even though they are brought to a hospital, a doctor or some professional. If a person goes in with a broken leg or concussion, he or she will be given another appointment and somebody will have the person's details and check on him or her. However, if the person goes in with a mental problem, that type of connection is not made. A person who I will not name but who has done wonderful work on this issue once told me suicide is not a political priority because there are no votes in it. If that is true, it is a huge indictment of all of us.

We organised a number of conferences in the North, which Deputy Dan Neville kindly attended to speak and give us the benefit of his wisdom. To return to PIPS and County Louth, the Louth county coroner recently said that more people are dying in his area of responsibility as a result of suicide than of car accidents. We have often used the example of the campaign for safer driving - which includes heavy advertising, consciousness raising efforts, the promotion of safer driving, change of regulations and so on, quite rightly - and then contrasted that with the lack of a similar approach to an issue which is costing more lives than are lost on our roads.

A few months ago, there was a surge of suicides of very young people in west Belfast. It is a very tight community there, and they came together and sought to work together. I invited the Deputy First Minister to the area and, together, we met young people and bereaved families, and he invited them to meet him at Stormont to explore suicide prevention strategies. I mention this because I tried to get the same approach here from the former Minister for Health and Children, Ms Mary Harney, and she would not even meet on the issue. We must consider the hurt of those who are directly affected. When suicide happens in a community just as I have described, the fear grips everybody - every big brother, big sister, parent and grandparent - and they ask whether their child or family member will be next.

While suicide is now better understood, there is still the awful phrase "committing suicide". In the past, a suicide victim in the Catholic Church's protocol could not be buried on consecrated ground but all of that is now gone. Nonetheless, bereaved families resent the use of the term "committed suicide", which suggests the person had committed a sin - I say this as a consciousness raising effort. Rather, it is "taking a life through suicide" or "taking your own life". In Irish, the term "committing suicide" is never used and "taking your own life" is always used.

While the issue is now better understood and there is more compassion, there is not sufficient funding in this regard. I appreciate this debate taking place today. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, for that, and Deputy Finian McGrath , who raised this issue last week, is also to be commended. There is a need for more funding and for an all-island approach. In the North, there is a suicide prevention strategy implementation body, which I commend to the Minister of State, and there is also a regional strategy and an executive sub-group. While the resources are inadequate there also, they are ring-fenced. Here, there is the National Office for Suicide Prevention and the strategy. However, funding in both states on mental health and suicide prevention is inadequate given the scale of the crisis.

I referred to road safety and it is quite right the Road Safety Authority is undertaking all of its campaigning. It receives €40 million a year, which is eight times what is provided for suicide prevention. Mental health provision remains the Cinderella of our health services. All of this must change.

We need an all-island suicide prevention agency, with the health authorities North and South working with other bodies and voluntary and community groups to put together effective strategies. We must have effective remedies backed up by dedicated funding and resources. Such an initiative must also be cross-departmental as it incorporates the remit of various Ministers. The North-South Ministerial Council, or a body arising out of it which is answerable to both Ministers for Health, could make a significant impact in dealing with this. As another speaker observed, other states have brought forward successful strategies to deal with this awful blight.

In 2008, 420 people in this State were reported as having died by suicide. In the same year in the North, 282 suicides occurred. Last year 500 people died through suicide in this State and approximately 300 in the North. That is a total of 800, bearing in mind there may be under-reporting. Suicide is predominantly a male problem with the highest rates occurring among young men aged 18 to 24 years. The figure is also very high for men aged 60 to 64 years. For reasons we do not understand rates of suicide among women never exceed 9.5%, with that rate occurring among women aged between 50 and 54 years. In all cases the effect of suicide on families, friends and communities is absolutely devastating.

Self-harm is also an issue of great concern. Many GPs are not trained in dealing with mental health issues such as depression. Patients who present at hospitals with self-inflected injuries are often released without intervention even though it is frequently the case that people succeed in taking their own lives only after a period of self-harming.

Tá plean gníomhaíochta uile-oileán ann ag an Chomhairle Aireacht Thuaidh/Theas agus, ar mhaithe le daoine óga go háirithe, tá sé práinneach go ndéanfar obair ar bhonn náisiúnta, trasteorann Tá sé níos práinní anois ná mar a bhí riamh go n-oibreoidh nRanna anseo leis na Ranna ó Thuaidh.

Professor Kevin Malone of the school of medicine and medical science in UCD and St. Vincent's University Hospital recently gave evidence on suicide to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children. He reported that the incidence of suicide is significantly higher than the official statistics suggest. There must be follow-up on this finding; to resolve a problem we need to knows its depth.

I commend all the groups working with those bereaved by suicide and to prevent the incidence of suicide. I mentioned PIPS because it is the organisation with which I am most familiar; many others also do important work. In almost every community one will find good people trying to deal with this problem, raising consciousness of the issue and intervening in emergencies. Many people would fall through the cracks if not for the work of these groups.

I agree with other speakers that the incidence of suicide may increase as the economic recession bites and people become distressed and desperate. However, let us put this in context - suicide rates reached unprecedented levels at the height of the Celtic tiger. This may be a warning that the situation could get worse, but it also lets us know there are causes other than economic distress.

Tá mé buíoch den Aire Stáit as an ábhar seo a chur ar an chlár oibre inniu. This is an important debate but what is vital is that we deliver, in a measurable way, for the people affected by this issue. We must prove not only that we care but that we can bring forward strategies to deal with it.

See this speech in context