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

Last year, I stood here to appeal for help from the then Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and for an immediate reply in the wake of a series of harrowing suicides which shook the community of Ballyfermot to its core. Since 2015, Ballyfermot had already experienced over three times the average national suicide rate, but in the summer of last year there was a surge of deaths of a number of young women in very tragic circumstances. It demanded action and I appealed then for an all-hands-on-deck approach. The report the HSE has released confirmed what many of us then suspected, which is that many of the suicides in the area and in neighbouring areas such as Clondalkin and Tallaght were related to deprivation, domestic abuse, substance misuse, alcohol, social media, low school completion rates and fear that their children would be put into care by Tusla.

The report, Rapid Assessment and Community Response to suicide and suspected suicide in Dublin South, contains a number of recommendations and the challenge now is implementation. I was calling for a co-ordinated response, the beginning of which I believe we are starting to see. Ballyfermot Star is leading the suicide prevention and community engagement group in Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard. Its job is to identify clusters of suicide, identify the underlying issues, to start to tackle it and to act. In some ways, the easier part is done. We have done the talking, now there must be action. We have seen many reports and we have definitely seen too many tragic deaths. It is time to act, to maintain the momentum and to deliver on this report. I ask the Minister of State to tell us how the report will be implemented in order that the situation in Ballyfermot last year will not be repeated.

See this speech in context