Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I also wish to be associated with the remarks made about Deputy Dan Neville. My first experience of Deputy Neville with regard to this issue was many years ago when someone who was unsuccessful in a suicide attempt came to Cork. Deputy Neville contacted me and between the two of us we befriended the person and did a little socialisation. Dan's record is not only with regard to prevention or public information, but it also stands with regards to people who are not successful in their attempt as he has talked many of them and their families through very difficult situations. It is for this that we should be most grateful.

It is also appropriate that I recognise the contribution made by my predecessor, John Moloney. He was also very dedicated and put in place many of the initiatives on which we are now following through. If we constantly state that if more women were involved in decision-making in society that things would be different, then it is incumbent on us as women to act differently when we get there, and acknowledging what others have done is very important.

I thank all of the Deputies who contributed in a very sincere manner. Clearly, they know the subject, and I suppose this is on the basis of personal experience, which is a sad way to find out about something such as suicide. It strikes me that according to the most recent statistics, the number of people who have taken their own lives would fill this Chamber more than three times over. We need to keep this in mind always.

We may attend an individual funeral or we hear about a cluster of three, four or five suicides in an area but it is very difficult to envisage the total of more than 500 people. If one closes one's eyes, it is virtually a small village. If that number of deaths happened as a single tragedy any year, our response would be far more immediate and urgent. This is what we need to do; we need to keep in mind the number of people we are speaking about and the devastation each death leaves after it not only for the family, but for friends and the community, and also the terror it sends through each house in the immediate area. What this is really about is this sense of terror, which perhaps makes us not want to speak about it because if we do not speak about it then somehow it will not happen again. We know this is not true because it has gone on for so long.

It was interesting to hear almost every speaker compare funding for suicide prevention with funding for the Road Safety Authority. A comparison can be made on funding, but I am not certain a comparison can be made on the manner in which people die. I must admit I am not into this; I can understand it is an easy argument to make but I do not think it is a comparison of like with like. Every evening, on the six o'clock news one can see the carnage of road accidents but we do not see this with regard to suicide and I am not certain we want to do so.

People who decide to take their life by suicide do not make an immediate decision to do so; it is something they have thought about. What is important is to say to those people who are listening and who are contemplating suicide that they should speak to someone. The old adage that talk is good is vital. If they cannot speak to someone nearby they should pick up the telephone. They should speak to the various helplines or their GP. They should speak to their sisters or brothers or someone, because it is important that we recognise that people who have taken this course of action need someone to talk to. They need help and that help is there. When that help is given, it can divert people away from this path and this is very important. We are not speaking about strangers on the street; we are speaking about fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and a beloved son.

In the argument about where we are going with regard to mental health, the stigma attaching to mental health is probably the greatest preventer of people seeking help in the first instance. Why is this stigma attached to mental health? Surely it is no different from having cancer. I remember a number of years ago one did not say the word "cancer" in public. One would say "the big C" or "she has been diagnosed with the other thing". We have got past this because we recognise that it is a disease, and one which not alone is preventable but curable and treatable. So is mental illness and we need to get our heads around this. We need to start saying it out loud and exploding the picture.

Last night, I attended the launch of Make a Ripple, which is an excellent new intranet campaign for people feeling down and unwell with regard to their mental health. They can go online and share their stories and read other people's stories. Amazingly, one of the people headlining the Make a Ripple campaign is Alastair Campbell, someone with whom all of us here would have an affinity. He is hugely successful in politics, writing and his contribution to society, and he suffers from depression. He speaks about it. Some days he feels very good, some days it is a little bit mild and other days he stares into the abyss. He talks about it and we need to start doing the same. We need people to come out and to start talking about the very bad days they have had but which they have left in the past. I worry that we are not allowing young men and not so young men the opportunity to speak and the opportunity to tell us that they are feeling vulnerable. I am a great believer in balance. I have spent my life trying to achieve the type of balance necessary in society so that women can be treated equally. Sometimes by creating balance in one area, something else is put out of kilter. We need to start telling men, both young and middle aged, that they are not just valued as being providers but that they are valued as fathers, as brothers and as contributors to society. They need to know we value them. I can understand the type of humiliation men feel when they lose their jobs or businesses because they can no longer provide what they provided in the past. I say to them that is not what we value in you but we value your contribution to your family, to society; we value you. We need to get that message out there.

Deputy Naughten told the House about the cost to the economy of the effects of depression and of suicide. How do we judge whether a person has been successful in life? I hope that not everything is judged in economic terms based on the size of a person's car or house. We need to reconstruct how we regard people, how we value success and how we monitor that success.

It is good that people will praise a man who is a good father and regard this as a very honourable role. We need to start thinking outside the box about how we view people who take their own lives and people who suffer from depression. We need to start speaking out about stigma and we need to tell people that it is not the shameful thing they think it is. A total of 75% of mental illness emerges during childhood and adolescence and early intervention is essential so that such illness does not bring with it a lifetime of pain and misery. I refer to projects which provide such intervention and the very successful work of voluntary agencies such as Jigsaw and Headstrong. Such projects must be rolled out in all parts of the country so people can access the assistance of individual people as well as agencies.

Deputy Dowds suggested a ban on alcohol advertising. In my view, the day is fast approaching when alcohol needs to be included in the bundle of what we consider to be harmful drugs. This needs to happen. It is known that alcohol has the same destructive effect on health as do cigarettes but yet we still maintain that it is permissible to advertise alcohol. However, any ban on advertising must be a European-wide ban. It would be pointless for RTE to ban the advertising of alcohol if it is advertised on UTV and other stations. We must put across the message that success in life is not automatically regarded in terms of economic success as success must be measured in how a person contributes to society.

Children in primary school should be included in programmes which encourage them to talk about their feelings rather than about their mental health. Very young children can very quickly identify and name a bully but as they get older they will not do so because it is considered less manly to do so at second and third level. Just as in industry there is a Safe Pass system and legislation provides for health and safety instruction we need a similar system for dealing with mental health and it should be provided for in legislation. We need to start talking the talk and to start breaking the silence. Safe Talk and Assist need to be part and parcel of induction courses in all employment. It is only by adopting such a holistic approach to mental health and only when we all start to talk about it that people will feel safe and secure in approaching others.

Neither the previous Government, this Government nor the next Government can do this work on its own. It is a societal issue and society has to take ownership of it. The Government must put the structures in place so people can approach a service and receive assistance. We must all recognise the signs so that when someone feels threatened we can ask them how they are doing today. We may be a friend, a neighbour or a family member but we can then help them. If it is the case that according to the latest statistics this Chamber could be filled three times over with the number of people who have taken their own lives, then we need to deal with it.

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