Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael)

I will use my time to deal with the figures on suicide that were published today. The Central Statistics Office published figures for 2011, which show that 525 people died by suicide last year, an increase of 7%. Some 438, 84%, were men and 86 were women. I want to highlight that serious issue. There were also a further 65 undetermined deaths. In most western countries they are accepted as suicide and included in the suicide figures. Looking at it in totality and bearing in mind that these are provisional figures, in excess of 600 people died by suicide last year, which indicates a very serious public health issue. Understanding why it happens is very difficult because suicide is a highly complex issue.

I will deal with two points. First, the area of mental health and suicide prevention has been neglected over decades. I am not pointing the finger at anybody. In fact the former Minister of State, John Moloney, probably contributed to addressing the issue more than anybody else along with the present Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. While there is movement in the area, we still have a serious issue because of the traditional neglect of mental health services and suicide prevention. While not all suicide victims suffer from mental illness, more than 80% of those who die from suicide have a mental health difficulty.

The other point is the link between suicide and economic recession. It has been well established internationally that unemployment and the threat of unemployment is a leading predictor of suicide. Research indicates that for every 1% increase in unemployment there is a 0.78% increase in the rate of suicide. During times of economic recession, the loss of employment or income, financial pressure, pressure on mortgage repayments and the loss of a home or the threat of the loss of a home are extremely stressful. Especially vulnerable people suffer from anxiety, hopelessness and despair, which lead to depression often creating relationship problems, and there is a higher level of marriage breakdown and divorce. Of course some people take solace in alcohol and drugs which are very serious in regard to levels of suicide.

Alcohol consumption plays a role in the incidence of suicide.

The Government allocated €35 million in the recent budget for mental health services and it is vital that money is spent on them. We must be vigilant in ensuring the HSE spends the money where the Government decided it should be spent, namely, on the development of mental health services. When moneys were allocated for these services in 2006 and 2007 only 50% of the allocation was spent on them.

The first step in the development of mental health services is to develop community based mental health services and the Minister has targeted this area. Currently, 150 new postholders are being recruited in the child and adolescent psychiatry area and 254 new postholders in the adult psychiatry area. These are multidisciplinary postholders - they are not psychiatrists or psychotherapists - namely, counsellors, nurses, occupational therapists, family therapists etc. We must be concerned at the level of progress that has been made to date to establish the 90 community based multidisciplinary teams that are planned for the mental health services. We have a high level of institutional treatment of the mental health service, one of the highest levels in Europe. People should be treated in their community as far as possible. These 90 community based multidisciplinary psychiatric teams are across four regions and each one will service a population of 50,000. It is important that programme is completed as quickly as possible and, having regard to the Minister's plan, that we are vigilant in ensuring that the HSE does so.

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