Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this important issue. I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. This is the first opportunity I have had to speak before her in the House. I acknowledge her commitment to dealing with this issue and what has been done already through the ASIST, applied suicide intervention skills training, programme and the See Change initiative. I also pay tribute to Deputy Dan Neville who, long before he became a Deputy, identified suicide as a major malaise in Irish society. I recall that as a Member of the Seanad he was one of the first, if not the first, to raise this issue and he has pursued it in the years since. Third, I pay tribute to all the voluntary organisations who are doing such good work, such as Pieta House, ASIST, Aware, the Samaritans and so forth.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this important issue. I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. This is the first opportunity I have had to speak before her in the House. I acknowledge her commitment to dealing with this issue and what has been done already through the ASIST, applied suicide intervention skills training, programme and the See Change initiative. I also pay tribute to Deputy Dan Neville who, long before he became a Deputy, identified suicide as a major malaise in Irish society. I recall that as a Member of the Seanad he was one of the first, if not the first, to raise this issue and he has pursued it in the years since. Third, I pay tribute to all the voluntary organisations who are doing such good work, such as Pieta House, ASIST, Aware, the Samaritans and so forth.

Suicide is the silent killer in our society. It destroys lives, creates victims and causes devastation to many families in this country. As Members are aware, there are twice as many deaths by suicide as there are deaths on our roads. That is a dreadful statistic when one contemplates it. The two main causes of death among young people are either suicide or road traffic accidents.

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