Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

The Minister has cut it to all organisations. An instruction was given to the National Office for Suicide Prevention, and it appeared in the press last week. I have researched the matter and I am informed that this is the case.

Research into suicide since the 1890s shows there is an increase in suicide rates and mental illness during times of economic recession. Instead of cutting the level of funding to the National Office for Suicide Prevention, the Minister should emulate the action of the Minister, Deputy Mary Hanafin, and increase the funding by €10 million to allow the office to respond to the need that inevitably exists due to the recession and the increase in unemployment. Economic strain and personal financial crisis have been well documented as precipitating events in individual deaths by suicide. Research has been conducted in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe on this. Stressful life events, financial and otherwise, have a significant impact on those who are vulnerable to suicide where typical coping mechanisms are compromised by the effects of mental disorder, substance abuse, acute psychiatric symptoms and the other risk factors associated with suicide. There have already been several suicides that can be attributed to the difficulties and pressures arising from the current economic changes.

Increasing unemployment leads to an increase in suicide rates. Unemployment has a profound effect on the person, especially on the young and middle aged. Irish society still awards status and prestige according to a person's position and contribution to work. Correspondingly, unemployment is associated with loss of face and of prestige. This is compounded by the fact that we are emerging from a period when people had an expectation of high levels of income and high standards of living. Many professional people, along with people from other socio-economic groups, are losing employment and their expectations for their futures are destroyed. The level of pressure on them is accentuated due to the level of income and economic activity they experienced during the years of the Celtic tiger economy.

The unemployed are six times more likely to suffer from a psychiatric disorder than people in employment. Studies show that those who die of suicide are significantly more likely to have experienced unemployment, job instability or occupational problems. The Kelleher-Daly study conducted in Cork during the economic recession in the 1980s showed that of the male deaths by suicide analysed, two thirds involved men who were out of work at the time of their deaths.

The high rate of home foreclosures is of particular concern. There have been studies conducted in the United States with regard to suicide levels and their relationship to home foreclosures. For most Irish people, their homes are their primary investment and the locus of their identities and social support systems. When combined with loss of employment, home loss or the threat of home loss has been found to be one of the most common economic strains associated with suicide. While there is a moratorium on foreclosures on the part of some of the banks, newspapers reported today that the courts yesterday approved nine home foreclosures. The Minister has decided banks should not move to foreclose for a period of time, but the threat of what will happen their homes after 12 months will have a serious effect on the psychological well-being of people in those circumstances.

The Minister must immediately respond to the psychological, emotional and psychiatric difficulties affecting people as a result of the changed economic times. In doing so, she must recognise the need to enable the National Office for Suicide Prevention to respond adequately to the inevitable growing demand for its services. Dr. John Connolly, secretary of the Irish Association of Suicidology, stated recently in a newspaper interview that despite the shrinking public finances, it is vital that the Government invests more in suicide prevention and mental health services to reduce the number of deaths. He said: "We must be aware of the fact that research reaching back to that of Emile Durkheim in the 1890s shows that in times of recession, suicide rates inevitably increase." He told a meeting of the Oireachtas sub-committee on the high level of suicide in Ireland: "Unfortunately, this will happen in the coming months and years unless we ensure that funding for the implementation of the national suicide prevention strategy and other services is guaranteed."

I ask the Minister to respond to that point.

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