Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on suicide prevention. Members on all sides of the House made many excellent contributions on the issue and I will endeavour not to repeat points which were previously raised. I will focus on younger children, how this society is failing to protect their mental health and what we must change to ensure we intervene at the earliest opportunity to protect the most vulnerable.

This country has returned to the days of high unemployment, mass emigration and social despair. The most tragic by-product is the increasing rate of suicide. This tragedy is not confined to any particular class or corner of the island but is affecting rich and poor, old and young, male and female. In 2009, the rate of people taking their own lives increased by a startling 24%. These are people who see no way out of the despair they feel, whether because of negative equity, addiction issues, unemployment, discrimination or depression. They took their lives because they could see no hope for their future.

We can address this national emergency by creating a better society that provides people with the best of services, education, social protection and health care. However, what about the children who are the victims of circumstances beyond their control and are growing up in households ridden by despair? They are fragile, impressionable, easily corruptible and can be permanently damaged by the environment in which they live. What interventions are available to us to care for delicate minds or childhoods filled with nights in which heated words are exchanged by financially crucified adults so close to the brink that they see no way out?

What about children who live in areas where the only viable economic activity is the drugs trade? Older siblings get sucked into a hopeless spiral of street corner loitering and low-level anti-social behaviour and often on to full-scale membership of violent gangs, incentivised by easy money, street credibility and a perverse sense of empowerment. Communities such as these are rarely understood, chronically under resourced and frequently stigmatised with outlandish generalisations by media outlets. If we accept that it takes a village to raise a child, is it any wonder that children of such a village will grow up with a poor sense of self-esteem, negative self-image and feel totally disempowered and disconnected from the mainstream of Irish society?

Our education system is charged with the responsibility of identifying, diagnosing and treating children who display a variety of emotional behaviour disorders. As currently constituted, the system outrageously misplaces resources in a manner that inevitably benefits children from middle-income backgrounds and not those more in need. Our education supports for those most in need of help are misplaced and poorly structured.

This happens in two main ways. First, the allocation of resource teachers is based on the general allocation model introduced by the previous Government, which allocates teachers on the basis of the school enrolment number and not on the basis of need. As a result, children who attend schools with a smaller enrolment do not receive the same level of support irrespective of the level of need. This is a crude, blunt and indeed cruel arrangement that must be amended to ensure that our most vulnerable children are supported.

Second, in the allocation of resource hours sanctioned by the special educational needs organiser, SENO, schools with access to private psychological or clinical assessments receive more resource hours. Those who depend solely on the under-resourced National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, receive fewer. School leaders, teachers and school principals are left in an almost impossible position when attempting to provide supports for children who present with specialised care needs. They have to juggle referral forms and representations to the National Educational Welfare Board, NEWB, NEPS, agencies such as the Mater Child Guidance Clinic, the relevant social worker, the home school community liaison service and, if they are fortunate, supportive parents. I have been the principal on the telephone to agencies being told that the child is not suicidal and that I am wasting my time.

If a parent or parents prove obstructive or difficult, the school is powerless to proceed. This is just one more glaring example of why our children's rights referendum is so sorely needed. Our children now live in a society that is at breaking point, in a culture that shortens childhood to maximise corporate profit, in a country that purports to cherish every child equally, but only punishes our vulnerable rather than liberating them. We must liberate our children from the dark clouds that hang over their minds. We must empower them with the ability to express their feelings, to understand their circumstances and encourage them to believe that they truly are more powerful than they could ever contemplate.

We cannot fail them at the earliest stage, the stage when they depend on us the most. The risk of internalising the hurt permanently is too great, and the potential of becoming another suicide statistic too real.

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