Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I too am very concerned about suicide. It behoves all of us to make a real and sincere effort to get to the root of the problem. I compliment Deputy Neville for his arduous work over many years in this area.

Suicide has touched many lives and is a tragedy for both the victims and survivors. It permeates through the wider family and into the community. Suicide is all too prevalent. Eight out of ten suicides in this country this year will be males. That is what the statistics tell us. I do not have great confidence in statistics because, as the previous speaker indicated, statistics on role models, for example, do not help the situation. Perhaps we need to have more humanity and understanding. We must ensure a greater appreciation of the importance of the human being no matter what role they take in life. We should value all people from a young age to those in old age.

The dominant fact of Ireland's suicide death toll is that it is overwhelmingly male. Any suicide, whether it is male or female, young or old, is a tragedy, but suicide on this island is mainly a killer of men, usually young men. I am concerned about the incidence of single vehicle road traffic accidents. Not enough investigation has taken place into them. Some of the deaths may be from suicide, especially where there are strange types of accidents.

We are very aware of the despair being caused by unemployment. This has been the case for decades. The Tipperary hurling team was buoyant after winning the all-Ireland final last year. Afterwards many of the players returned to unemployment, which was unheard of in previous years. We will have to tackle this in many areas. People who are idle may have too much time to think and may get into a rut and not mix with friends.

We must have campaigns that aggressively target depression in young men. The Choose Life campaign in Scotland has met with no small degree of success in reducing that country's suicide rate. It is good to see O2 and other organisations coming on board to make an effort. Given that young people spend so much time on social networks, it is good to see the benefits of social networks being explored.

A counselling centre in Peter Street in Clonmel opens on the first Wednesday of every month. It should be open for many more hours. I compliment the counsellors involved. Services such as theirs are needed in every town and in rural areas. There is much work to be done. In this regard, we should join Deputy Neville in trying to make a serious effort in this Parliament to address this most sad issue.

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