Maurice Hayes (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I do not have much to add to Senator Ormonde's sensitive and insightful contribution. The only thing I would implore her to do would be to stick to decent terms like aftercare and leave terms such as "postvention" to people who think up awful terms, such as "proactivity".

I wish to contribute to the debate because suicide is also a common problem in Northern Ireland. It would be helpful if an all-island approach to suicide prevention was used or at least if there was an exchange of views and experience. As Senator Ormonde said, suicide is an extremely complex subject and a variety of agencies need to be involved in combating it.

It is important to introduce short-term measures to combat suicide in addition to establishing organisations and engaging in research. Suicide research is extremely important and I commend the Minister of State for the support he has given to that. Much of this research could take the form of action research in particular places. The Government should look at measures that work, as Senator Ormonde mentioned with regard to schools in Dublin, and see if they can be replicated.

A feature of suicide that fascinates me is the clustering of suicides around the country. Why is the incidence of suicide higher in some places than in others? Is it because some locations offer more opportunities to commit suicide, because of copycat suicides or because of a particular set of circumstances in certain locations? Research is either being carried out or will be carried out into this subject. I would encourage the Minister of State to support this research as an aid in our understanding.

As Senator Ormonde noted, there are connections between alcohol, drugs and suicide. People's lack of self-worth is another contributing factor. What is it in the system, particularly the education system, that makes people feel this way? There is also the question of whether suicides are the result of a cry for help. We need people who are trained and sensitised to pick up signals of suicide, however, these signals will not always be visible. There is a need for resources on the ground, particularly psychiatrists, psychologists and paediatric and adolescent services.

Getting in touch with young people also presents a problem. Some of the practitioners in this field have suggested to me that the best people to speak to young people at that level are those who have themselves attempted suicide but drew back from it. How can we mobilise these people or make contact with them? I am not sure what the suicide resource officers of the Health Service Executive do and I do not want to refer to particular cases, but there is little point in their being there if they only work office hours. People tend to attempt suicide "out of hours".

Accident and emergency services, particularly in larger departments that run 24 hours a day, should have the capacity to deal with this problem and have psychiatric care available around the clock. An increasing number of people who present in accident and emergency units have psychological or incipient suicide problems. The Minister of State's Department will know that interesting actions are being taken in Scotland, for instance, where the resources of a whole town, village or area are mobilised to deal with the issue. This should be encouraged but will the Minister of State try to ensure that whatever is done happens in conjunction and consultation with people in the North who have the same problems?