Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)

I feel somewhat inadequate contributing to this debate in the presence of Deputy Neville, having listened to his contribution. I join Deputy Carey in praising Deputy Neville and others who have done so much work on this issue.

Suicide in Ireland is now at unprecedented levels. The reasons for this are complex. To reduce the rate of suicide we need integrated comprehensive plans. I am aware that recommendations have been made. I wish to raise one issue in the time available to me. Teachings on the excessive use of alcohol, drug abuse, what we value, what we do not value, self-restraint, self-denial and mercy are messages carried by organised religious groups such as Christians, the Jewish community, Muslims and others. If, for young people in particular, this teaching is replaced by "anything goes" and what feels good, despair cannot be too far behind.

As a young Muslim man who worked for me last year put it, the term "jihad" is much misunderstood. Jihad is what we each face daily, the struggle between what is right and wrong. We all do wrong but if we recognise the wrong, because there are some beliefs or a moral system guiding us, we can make amends and strive for what is right. If we do not know that internal jihad, confusion and despair can easily follow. For many of us, the teaching that equipped us to handle this jihad came in the main from religious sources, with all its faults and human failings. Can we actually create an environment where religious practice is respected and encouraged, although not forced? Should we do so?

Religious practice is as much part of who we are as a people as is culture, language or, for example, hurling. If hurling or art were to be threatened we would act. In the case of religion, some of us seem to rejoice in its apparent decline. Some of this is due to abuse that has been perpetuated, some because of the harshness with which some religious leaders behaved in the past.

Rev. Dr. Eoin Cassidy, in his book The Search for Meaning and Values, published by Veritas in 2004, refers to the philosopher Alistair MacIntyre of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. If MacIntyre is correct, liberal individualist culture provides neither a basis for moral discourse nor a context for rationally securing agreement on any moral issue because it cannot sustain the wherewithal to create a moral community. What is necessary for a moral community to exist is some shared sense that there is a purpose to existence and some level of agreement as to what that purpose might entail. MacIntyre's view is that western culture has lost connection to the idea of virtue and what it means to be a virtuous person, or even what it means to aspire to be a virtuous person.

In his opinion we possess only the fragments of a former conceptual scheme; we possess such words as goodness, virtue, a virtuous life, and so on, but we have lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality. He states:

In this context, there is no rational way to gain moral agreement, hence, for all practical purposes, we are living in what might be called an emotivist culture, one which proclaims that all judgements are nothing but expressions of preference, attitude or feeling.

This may be a pessimistic appraisal but if we are to make a start to creating a society where the despair or indifference which leads to suicide is less prevalent, we must begin with a thoughtful re-appraisal of some of the philosophies which have helped bring us to this point.

Iris Murdoch, the Irish-born, Oxford-based novelist and philosopher, who died in 1999, was the recipient of numerous awards and accolades. Rather than the empty external freedom of existentialism, Murdoch looks to an alternative view that places emphasis on the growth of freedom that accompanies a growth in the person, and one that shifts the emphasis in morality from the world of action to that of vision. According to Murdoch, modern ethical theories such as behaviourism, utilitarianism or existentialism cannot account adequately for either moral progress or moral failure because they have no sense of the existence of an appropriate goal towards which they ought to strive and which does justice to the seriousness of the ethical project.

As Rev. Dr. Eoin Cassidy states, Christians believe it is by reflecting on mystery, truth, goodness, beauty and love that one can begin to explore the mystery of God and the manner in which God is revealed in the world. These privileged dimensions of creation and, in particular, human existence can be described as the four footprints of God in the world, according to Dr. Cassidy. However, in the search for meaning and value, it is not only the Christian churches which can contribute. In October 1965 under the title Nostra Aetate— In Our Time — a short declaration, inspired by Vatican II, on religious and spiritual interpretations of experience was issued. This vision is well articulated in the following passage from Nostra Aetate:

Human beings look to their different religions for an answer to the unsolved riddles of human existence. The problems that weigh heavily on the hearts of human beings are the same today as in the ages past. What is the person? What is the meaning and purpose of life? What is upright behaviour, and what is sinful? Where does suffering originate, and what end does it serve? How can genuine happiness be found? What happens at death? What is judgement? What reward follows death? And finally, what is the ultimate mystery, beyond human explanation that embraces our entire existence, from which we take our origin and towards which we tend?

All this might seem a very strange contribution on the subject of suicide. We need better youth service facilities, more education on the abuse of alcohol and early warning systems. However, on their own, these will not go to the heart of the ills in society which have given rise to such a high rate of suicide.

Politicians can no more reverse the trends in suicide than we can create jobs, for example. However, we can create the environment in which employment will have the opportunity to flourish. We can also help create the environment which contributes to the search for meaning and value that leads people away from despair. To do that, we must start talking more about the value of religious teaching and belief. We must respect those who hold religious beliefs, as well as those who do not. The trend towards only one type of society, an assimilated society, where secularism is almost a universal religion and the only one to be respected, is a recipe for despair. Our society must be about integration not assimilation. Have we learned nothing from the birth of the European Union or the Troubles of Northern Ireland?

The essential point I want to make is as follows. If we are to lead young people away from despair and hopelessness, they must be given hope, vision and leadership. They will not hear this message of hope exclusively in the home or exclusively from the tongues of other leaders like politicians or trade unionists, and they are unlikely to get it from the business class. One sector of our society, with all its excesses and abuses, has in the past tried to imbue a sense of moral values. That sector is the religious, largely Christian, sector. It is now a very much more mixed sector with different Christian religions, a strong Muslim community and, sadly, a declining Jewish community.

One aspect those groups have in common is a wish to try to imbue people with a sense of what is right and wrong. I do not want to return to the excesses of religious leadership, or anything akin to a shadow-state within a state. I do not want a society where the parish priest controls who uses the local community hall or where the Muslim teacher imbues intolerance. However, I do want a society where sport, culture, art, politics and religion co-exist. Organised religion has a contribution to make in leading people away from despair and in seeking to equip society with a value system that helps when trying times are present. The new Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Diarmuid Martin, has stated his Church must find new ways of evangelising. I fully support and encourage that, and believe it would help if women and married people were allowed a full role in that new model.

The Beatitudes tells us that blessed are the merciful for they shall be shown mercy. One of the less palatable manifestations of the wrongs of Ireland's society is the absence of mercy. We are all at it — journalists, businessmen and politicians. Has our inability to show mercy created an atmosphere or attitude in which suicide can thrive? This is a question worthy of consideration and debate. Would it be unthinkable to have a White Paper on the role of religion in society? Foreign policy and education are not the only important areas which should receive such consideration and analysis. To turn society around and to reduce the number of suicides requires a multifaceted approach.

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