Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know the Deputy has genuine concerns about this issue, but so do I. Let us try not to make sweeping statements that are not true. We have looked at the incidence of suicide in the Defence Forces and among ex-Defence Forces personnel. We have looked at that in a lot of detail as regards trends over the last 20 years. We have tried to make comparisons between times when a lot of Lariam was being prescribed and times when not a lot of Lariam was being prescribed, such as now, because we do not currently have many troops in sub-Saharan Africa. The trends do not change hugely. It is tragic that people take their own lives for all sorts of very complex reasons. If there are links with the drugs they have been taking, then they need to be exposed, but there is no settled agreement on whether Lariam, for example, has permanent side-effects.

See this speech in context