Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the Government's strategy on suicide prevention and the mental health strategy, I do not know if the Tánaiste saw the report from the 3Ts charity which again put the focus on suicide. Somewhere in the region of 1,000 citizens across the island have lost their lives through suicide and, in my own constituency, 16 people died through suicide in 2011. One statistic really disturbs me - one child under 18 years dies by suicide every 18 days. I have raised this issue consistently with the Taoiseach. First, promises were made about 414 mental health service positions, but, to the best of my knowledge, they have still not been filed. Second, given the all-island nature of this national crisis, can some progress be made in terms of having an all-island strategy to deal with this matter? There are more people losing their lives through suicide than are now, thankfully, being lost on the roads. The approach used in that regard in terms of education and informing people would work well in suicide prevention.

See this speech in context