Eamon Scanlon (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and will make a few comments on what is a very sad problem in Irish society. This matter is a tragedy of enormous proportions as not a town, village or parish is unaffected by suicide today. The figure of 444 people who took their own lives in 2003 is only the documented figure but there are experts who would suggest that many more people fall within this category. For example, car and other accidents may have been suicides but were not recorded as such. That so many deaths are due to suicide is a terrible tragedy.

Being a politician, I know many people, including a number who committed suicide, but I do not believe they had psychiatric problems. They appeared to be the sanest people in the world to me and many of their friends and acquaintances. However, they snapped and, unfortunately, took their own lives for some reason. A situation occurred within my family 14 years ago, from which I know that suicide has a terrible effect on families, including hurt and anger. The length of time it takes to get over such a tragedy is something one must go through to understand it fully. People feel guilty because they believe it should not have happened or that they could have done something to prevent it. Unfortunately, it is too late by that stage.

I will mention the work that is being carried out by the voluntary mental health associations in certain areas. I do not know whether this is true elsewhere in the country but I can speak about Ballymote, where great work has been done. The groups even had a junior mental health association. When I started work in Sligo 32 or 33 years ago, I lived with the man I was working with and was situated across the road from the mental hospital, as it was called at the time. None of my friends would visit me. Such were the attitudes to those institutions then. Thankfully, this has changed as people are more prepared to talk about the issue. This is due to the work organisations have done on the ground. They got people involved, visited mental hospitals and took people on day trips. They have done tremendous work.

Located across the road from my business in Ballymote is a centre attended by approximately 30 people from within a 15 to 20 mile radius. They are collected every day, taken to the centre where they can visit doctors, chiropodists or whoever, are given their dinners and are taken back home in the evenings. They also have the freedom to do their shopping or to go to the local pub to have a drink. Many of these people would not otherwise be seen outside their front doors from one week to the next. The only person who might see them would be the postman, depending on the form they were in on the day the post man called. Fantastic work is being done and the people who are doing it should be complimented.

The issue of suicide is difficult to resolve and it is hard to know where to start. The Health Service Executive in the north west has a number of people involved in carrying out studies on suicide, as the incidence of suicide has been high in that area. Senator Maurice Hayes mentioned clustering, which is a problem all over the country. A person may think about committing suicide and see someone else do it, triggering them in turn. This may be one cause but no one really knows what causes it. However, there is no doubt that clustering is a factor. I know of areas where one suicide is followed by another a week later and so on but dealing with clustering is very difficult.

The Aware organisation carried out a study on suicide in 1998 and made a number of good suggestions, such as addressing the issue in schools. Young people should be made aware of the problem and it should be talked about because doing so makes it better understood. Young people should know there are structures available to help them. If we start there it may be of help. Alcohol is a problem, of course, and drugs destroy lives, which we all know. I wish the Minister of State well in whatever he does. This is a serious and difficult problem that will not be solved easily. All we can do is continue to try to reduce the number of suicides.