Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have declared, under the declaration of interests of the Ethics in Public Office Act, that I am a company director and president of the Irish Association of Suicidology but I wish to put it on the record for those reading this report.

I am very interested to hear how Mr. Austen would propose to have earlier statistics from the Central Statistics Office, because to decide on a suicide is complex. It would be admirable to have earlier statistics and confidence in their accuracy. There is quite a complicated approach in operation at present, between form 104 and the coroner's report.

I wish to discuss the effect of stigma. All of the organisations are working on reducing stigma, and this is done through their discussing it, speaking about it and providing services to people in crisis. Amnesty International and St. Patrick's Hospital have conducted surveys on the level of stigma which still exists with regard to those with mental illness. St. Patrick's Hospital examined the general population and Amnesty examined those who suffer or have suffered from a mental illness. It is quite frightening. It is accepted it is under-reported because people want to be positive rather than negative. This is a very big challenge faced by everybody involved in mental health services, NGOs and suicide prevention.

The former Minister of State, John Moloney, did excellent work. I cannot overstate how interested he was in working on mental health and suicide. He launched the See Change programme. Has any evaluation been done on how effective State organisations are in reducing the stigma of mental illness and suicide?