Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Malley, to the House and thank him for his address on this important issue. I congratulate Senator Cyprian Brady who initiated this debate in the House last week on the Order of Business.

We have heard a broad range of views on this issue and it is important that the Houses of the Oireachtas should continually highlight and concentrate on the awful issue of suicide. I also congratulate Deputy Neville on his work in this area. His campaigning zeal has done a great deal to highlight this issue nationally and we owe him a great debt of gratitude.

Some years ago I, as a Deputy, put forward a suggestion which was much ridiculed at the time but I am glad to see some progress has been made on it. The suggestion was that there should be a commission on the status of men. I was very serious about this. It came largely from my experience as a constituency representative working with many working class young men who were very severely depressed, disconnected from society and dysfunctional in many respects. Suicide is a real option for many of those young men with absolutely no lives to lead at all.

Since then I have read one of the most inspirational books I have ever read, Iron John by Robert Bly. In this book Bly describes the total disconnection of men from modern society and how, in many of our urban centres and in the west of Ireland and rural parts, we have managed to create a view of men which is demoralising for them and which leads to the kind of depression of which Senator Henry and others spoke.