Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I do not believe any of us has ownership of this issue. It is a pity that we have to come here to address it but it is has reached epidemic proportions in some of our communities. I acknowledge what the Minister of State has said about the fall in numbers. Any decrease in the number of suicides is to be welcomed. However, it may be the case that suicide is becoming more concentrated in certain areas or certain cohorts of communities. The community for which I am appealing for extra supports is that in Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard. I acknowledge that the HSE has been active this week. There have been several interventions by both the local drugs services and other services, as well as by An Garda Síochána. There have been several meetings and there will be another tomorrow night. That reflects the scale of the issue. I hope to be at the meeting in the civic centre tomorrow evening.

However, meetings by themselves can only do so much. We will not get an instantaneous answer or sort this out overnight. That is why I appealed to the Minister of State to ensure that we roll out the SafeTALK and skills training on risk, STORM, components of the Connecting for Life programme as extensively as possible. We must also start to fund some of the agencies doing this work so they can properly carry out the work they need to do. I refer in particular to those which fall under the remit of the drug and alcohol task forces, which have not seen any increase in funding sine 2008 despite facing additional workloads and a role in tackling the issue.

There is a network of active groups. I ask the Minister of State to pass on to the Ministers of State at the Department of Health, Deputies Catherine Byrne and Jim Daly, an invitation to come to the area to meet these groups. We must collectively take the approach upon which everybody agrees and work together to lift this blight from our communities.

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