Professor Paul Downes:

I have material on the related area of self-harm. We did focus groups some years ago with secondary school students. They stated clearly to us, in this qualitative research, that young people are self-harming because they have no one to talk to. That was the firm message of that qualitative research. I was invited to Dublin city Comhairle na nÓg in 2015. Its priority issue for secondary school was to have emotional counsellors, namely, someone students can talk to who is a specialist in the area. That is what participants were crying out for. Can we state that those who are suicidal will definitely go to a counsellor? We cannot. They may hide the fact, but at least it puts in a really important system support there.

Therefore from a suicide prevention perspective, this could be one element, among others, that could be another key policy goal in the area.