Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all our guests to the meeting. I had no intention of speaking today as basically came here to look, listen and learn because I have no experience of dealing with suicide. There is not a family in the country who has not had some experience of dealing with suicide. The biggest issue for family members, friends and colleagues is that they would like to know if there is a pattern that could be identified indicating that something was wrong with the person concerned. If I were to go to a friend's funeral and talk to the family members, they would ask if there was any sign to point to what was about to happen because the person concerned always seems to have been in a very happy frame of mind, which might have been due to the fact that he or she knew that the end was close.

It is a very delicate subject. Many families ask whether there is something they should have seen or some help they could have given. We can all talk about problems with finance or other problems but could the witnesses indicate whether there is something one can do if someone is behaving strangely or having mood swings? Families try to get closure over what happened to loved ones and they just cannot seem to achieve it.

I do not have experience in this area and I am sure the witnesses are very experienced. Could they indicate whether mood swings or other such behaviour would suggest that something is wrong with their loved ones? If they could interact perhaps it would help the person with the problem.