Dr. Justin Brophy:

While the Irish Association of Suicidology, IAS, document speaks to accreditation, there is no assurance of quality in counselling services at present. It pertains to the licensing and regulation of counsellors as well but in the next iteration, I expect that issue to be raised and perhaps addressed. As for a singular approach to suicide, that speaks around the notion of a single agency. We only have had a single agency with responsibility for suicide in recent years. Its singular authority and mandate to deliver in this area will increase as it is expected to deliver not merely on aspirations but on actual results. I have confidence in the agency's ability to deliver in that way, given an opportunity to develop a singular programme in the context of a wider policy development.

As for measures to reduce the incidence in respect of 16 to 18-year-olds, binge drinking in that age group probably is the single most important risk behaviour for self-harm and other forms of accidental death. I believe we still have not merely an ambiguous attitude but an extremely wanton approach to the State-sponsored encouragement of drinking sprees through extensions and State-sponsored festivals at which 18 to 30-year-----