David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I express sympathy to those who have experienced suicide in their families, many of whom I know, as do my colleagues. I remember at one time looking into a coffin where a young man of 22 with curly hair lay who had committed suicide. He should not have been in that coffin. He had his whole life ahead of him. I said to him, "You should not be in there". How many of us over the years have been in similar sad circumstances?

The official figure for suicides is 444 but the real figure is probably much higher than that, perhaps over 500 per year if one takes single car accidents, drownings and so on into account. If two jumbo jets crashed every year in Ireland, would the Government take notice? One can imagine the reaction to that. When responding I ask the Minister of State to outline to the House what he has done in his time in office and what he intends to do about this issue.

Alcohol is a major factor in suicide. We must tackle that problem because my experience is that many people who commit suicide, young men in particular, were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the suicide or shortly before it. Alcohol is a depressant drug that is greatly abused in this country and whatever else we do we must not extend the scope of its availability.

There is also a breakdown between the person and society — Durkheim called it anomie years ago. I have called on the Government to examine youth services. We need professional youth workers on the ground who can interact with young people outside school. Schools cannot solve every problem. The school environment can be artificial. I dealt with schools for 20 years and I know what I am talking about. Programmes in schools have limited value. We need youth workers on the ground in our towns and villages to interact with young people and identify those at risk.

We also need training for professionals. We must train young people to pick up cues from their peers. When a young man says "Life is not worth living", his friend might hear that cue, ask him to explain what he means and then direct him to help. We need more services in this area. Professionals must be available at the end of a phone line 24 hours a day, seven days a week or in hospitals to which people can go and get help immediately. We must also raise awareness about mental health issues. Deputy Neville has worked hard on that issue. That is something the Minister should do immediately.

We are turning into an economy, not a society. We must stop and think about that. I welcome this debate but we need a long debate with more Members involved in it because this is a vitally important issue that impacts on communities.

Families with teenage children are worried sick about the plague of suicide in our society and we must do much more about it than we have done until now. The President set up a forum recently. Communities that experience suicide set up their own groups but they are working hard and struggling to deal with this major problem but no leadership is being given. The recommendations that came forward included setting up a national body to co-ordinate these groups in the area of suicide prevention. That is something the Minister should do immediately. That was recommended by the forum the President set up, and I congratulate her on that.

There is too much fragmentation in this area. The various groups are doing their own thing and there is duplication of the work. They all believe they have the answer to the problem but no one group has the answer. I have met many of those groups and they are frustrated because they get so far and then come up against an obstacle. My own town, Midleton, in east Cork, has had a major issue with this over the years. Action is needed to deal with this problem immediately and I challenge the Minister to get working on it.

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