Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

I wish to deal with the issue of drugs and suicide. It is internationally accepted that drug misuse has a serious role in suicide. Drug addicts have a higher level of suicide and are more likely to be in prison or homeless than is average in the community. I have been unable to find research in Ireland on the number of drug addicts who have completed suicide. I will deal with a specific drug and its effect on suicide, namely alcohol. Alcohol plays a key role in suicide. The drug alcohol is as lethal in terms of suicide as any other drug. During the 1990s Ireland experienced a 41% increase in alcohol consumption and suicide rates increased by 44%, showing almost 100% correlation.

The effect of alcohol consumption on the adolescent and young adult brain causes an even greater depletion in important mood-stabilising neurotransmitters than occurs in a mature adult brain. A high level of alcohol consumption as might occur in a drinking spree can induce a significantly depressed mood state over the subsequent eight to 12-hour period. Research has shown that binge drinking is particularly associated with suicidal acts with the relative risk of suicide increasing tenfold for men and women relative to those of a similar baseline mood state who were not binge drinking. Liberal licensing laws and a lax regulatory environment contribute further to the problem. States with laws that set the minimum legal age for drinking at 21 years, such as the US, have lower youth suicide rates than states where the legal drinking age is 18.

Aggressive marketing, political lobbying by the drinks industry and the increase in disposable income has enabled the opportunity of spending money on alcohol with its well described depressant effect on mood and the increase in distorted judgment and impulsivity in its wake. Notwithstanding the number of people employed in the drinks industry and the huge excise paid on alcohol, the Government's failure to implement the report of the national task force on alcohol has a serious negative impact on suicide prevention.

It has been reported by general practitioners that 20% of their patients who died by suicide had a history of problem alcohol use, while psychiatrists reported 27% of their patients lost to suicide had a history of alcohol abuse. Only 46% of those were known to have attended for alcohol counselling.

A recent study carried out on unnatural deaths in 2001 and 2002 in Counties Louth, Meath and Cavan found that 93% of young men aged less than 30 years who had ended their lives had alcohol in their system, with 58% of them having a blood-alcohol level of greater than 160 mg/dl and 25% having a blood-alcohol level of greater than 240 mg/dl. By comparison, no man over 30 years lost to suicide had the same level of alcohol consumed, which indicates that this is a key issue for younger people. A six-year study carried out by the County Louth coroner published in January 2006 revealed that 48% of the 47 people who died by suicide in his area of inquiry had consumed alcohol prior to ending their lives.

I ask the Minister of State to deal with the area of research into the effect of drugs on suicide which is known to be an issue internationally. We have figures for the effect of alcohol which are very serious especially for those under 30.

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