Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to make a statement on suicide prevention. There simply is not enough time in the five minutes allowed to speakers to go over all the specifics and complexity of this immense issue.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to make a statement on suicide prevention. There simply is not enough time in the five minutes allowed to speakers to go over all the specifics and complexity of this immense issue.

Suicide is an area of great interest to me, as it is to many others in this Chamber who will know of someone or a friend of someone who has committed suicide. Unfortunately, a friend of mine with whom I lived in college and with whom I studied for four years took his own life only 12 months ago. All that his family and friends are left with are questions. Could anything have been done? Did they miss something and did they ever ask him how things were going? The question can be asked: is this story sad? It is, and, unfortunately, it is becoming all too familiar. I fear that we are beginning to treat suicide as merely another problem in the country. Trying to find a solution to such a massive problem is not easy and we should not think it is. The time has come for meaningful effort to solve this problem.

In recent years, I have noted that the number of suicides here is often compared to the number of lives lost on the roads. Both are tragic occurrences, both destroy families and communities, and yet the way we react to each is very different. If someone is killed in a road accident, the story will almost certainly be carried that evening on the news, the area will be sealed off and there will be a detailed investigation into why the accident happened and how we can make the scene of the accident saver to ensure an accident does not happen again. However, when a suicide happens, there is an outpouring of grief over a few days and weeks, and then the commotion dies down. The family, friends and community are left to pick up the pieces and the total number of suicides has gone up by one. Instead of going on about statistics and figures over the next few minutes, I would rather concentrate on the ways in which we may be able to start to solve this terrible problem.

At this point I compliment and thank the groups and individuals who continue to work on this area, many in a voluntary capacity and on extremely low funding, without whose help and support this problem would probably be a great deal worse.

Before being elected to this Dáil, I was a youth worker for four years with Foróige, which is the national youth organisation. In the role, I worked with young people from many different backgrounds, but all of whom faced the same challenges. Youth mental health was a challenge that came up repeatedly. This also included the areas of self-harm and potential suicide.

In that time, I became aware of two excellent services that I believe are going a long way to help solve the issues of youth mental ill health. The first is the big brother big sister programme with is a mentoring programme which partners a young person with a volunteer for up to a year. This opportunity allows the young person to meet once a week with someone in a friendly and safe environment. It allows that young person an opportunity to bring up any issues he or she may be going through, express himself or herself to someone from outside the family, but to enjoy himself or herself. This programme is becoming popular, but, more importantly, has a proven track record in helping build the confidence of a young person and his or her self-esteem.

Jigsaw is a service which was set up in Galway in 2008 and is a collaboration between Headstrong, the HSE and Mental Health Ireland. It is aimed at prevention and trying to alleviate the many issues before they become problems. It is run in a professional manner with excellent staff. This service was established when it became obvious that youth mental health has needed its own department for many years. It allows people to drop in for a chat and when they arrive, they are met by friendly staff who are equipped to deal with whatever issues they may have. The Jigsaw service is about listening. It is about find out where a young person is at, but, more importantly, to where he or she wants to go. It understands the concerns of young people in areas such as school or college; work or unemployment; family, friends and other relationships; sexuality and sexual activity; and maybe drugs and alcohol abuse. The areas I have described cover the areas of youth mental health but, unfortunately, as we all know, mental health issues affect persons of all ages and backgrounds. I welcome the developments of late that have brought this area away from the old style of thinking and that, for instance, better premises are being built that correctly highlight the importance of this problem, but also that someone who suffers from mental health issues is seen not as a burden on the State, rather as someone who is simply looking for help.

Finding a solution to this problem will not be easy for many reasons. It is complex and difficult. Sitting on our hands waiting for another report will not solve the problem. We must use every possible tool at our disposal to help solve it. I believe in a community-based approach, involving local community groups, youth groups, the GAA and any kind of youth club, to help combat the problem of suicide. This country has the people who have the skills and capacity to help in this area, but they need help to organise properly. They also need funding to make them effective. The one thing parties from all sides of the House can do is show that the 31st Dáil is serious about helping to combat the problem of suicide in our communities.

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