Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important issue and welcome everybody in the Public Gallery. It is great to see so many people here for the debate, especially those who have stayed for the duration of it.

Research carried out by the National Suicide Research Foundation on the impact of the recession and austerity found that since 2007 self-harm and suicide rates have increased significantly. The research also found that where a person lives has an enormous impact on the rate of suicide with two of Ireland's largest cities recording extremely high rates of suicide. My constituency of Limerick city recorded an average rate of suicide of 17 per 100,000 people over a 14-year period. The national average is 11.8 per 100,000 people. On the other hand, the rate of suicide is almost half the national average in affluent areas with an average rate of 6.7 per 100,000 people recorded for the Dublin region of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown over the same period. Clearly, socioeconomic factors such as unemployment, poor housing, crime, social deprivation, disadvantage, a deep sense of disempowerment and lack of opportunity and life chances result in poor mental health outcomes. Efforts to deal with structural inequality are of the utmost importance if we are to address the issue of mental health. Let us not beat around the bush - poverty causes ill-health in its broadest sense. It goes without saying, and many Deputies have repeated this, that the Government should fully implement the policy outlined in A Vision for Change. It should be implemented straightaway. At the very least, I call on the Minister of State to ensure that voluntary organisations, which do not wait for Government intervention to get going and get the work done, such as Limerick Suicide Watch and Limerick Marine Search and Rescue, are properly resourced and funded by Government.

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