David Norris (Independent)

I am grateful to my colleague, Senator Cummins, for making some time available for me to make a couple of clear and specific points and recommendations. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Tim O'Malley, will bear them in mind and take them to his colleagues.

This is a serious issue. Senators will be aware that committees of both Houses have looked at it in some detail and obtained expert evidence. According to the figures available to me, in 1993 some 360 people committed suicide. The suicide figure peaked in 1998 at 504 and it is now increasing again towards the 500 mark, which is very regrettable.

There are vulnerable groups, a number of which have been mentioned here. There is also the issue which arose on the Order of Business today. Among those vulnerable groups are the victims of sexual abuse, both by the clergy and the laity. Among the recommendations from everywhere, both in this country and abroad, is education, and particularly education on matters of sexual identity, etc. Unfortunately, conservative church groups opposed the Stay Safe programme, for example. The Government needs to take its courage in its hands, go into areas and not be put off by opposition from these kinds of groups. Those bodies, which are in difficulties now because of an abrogation of their responsibility to the vulnerable young people, were exempted by what I described this morning as a craven Parliament from the operation of the equality laws. I hope we have learned our lessons.

I want to look at a couple of because we know that there are marginalised groups that are more likely to encounter this difficulty, the first of which is asylum seekers and refugees. We must monitor that group much more carefully. There was a report in Metro Éireann, the newspaper of the asylum seekers and refugees in Ireland, of a Nigerian man who came here. He was here for three or four years with his partner by whom he had a son. He was an inoffensive man. He wanted to get refugee status and it was denied. Then he looked for it on compassionate grounds. The authorities were proposing to deport him to Nigeria, a country which we know from the newspapers is not safe for anybody. There was a report in The Irish Times last week of a Nigerian police officer who ran amuck and shot six people in the back of a car, and then planted evidence on them suggesting that they were robbers. Life is cheap in such countries. The man to whom I referred was served with a deportation order, went missing, committed suicide and was found on 11 September on the beach at Skerries. We know that is a vulnerable group.

The other group to which I wish to refer is that of young gay people. There is clear indication that young males are about four times more likely to commit suicide than young females. Within that group, young gay people are at least three times more likely to commit suicide. Internationally, sometimes this rate is much higher.

The national strategy for action on suicide prevention mentions this and refers to the various marginalised groups, particularly gay people, the bullying in school, etc. However, the report's recommendations are very weak. It is ridiculous. They include a recommendation to determine the risk of engaging in suicidal behaviour associated with belonging to this group. We know this already and if we do not, why do we not? The survey done in the North on the vulnerability of this group could not be more clear about what needs to be done, that is, education about sexual identity in the schools, but nobody is prepared to do it. Nobody is prepared to require that it be done in case it might conflict with the ethos of a group that has presided over the serial molestation of children. That is a real dereliction of responsibility on the part of Government. One cannot fault the church altogether for sticking up for what it sees as its territory — it is a natural institutional response — but the Government should now have the courage to take on this matter. The report makes vague recommendations about developing educational resources, etc. I agree, but let us be clear and specific. Let us have an education programme.

I would recommend the Belong To group and its report to the Minister of State. That group points out that being bullied and victimised, particularly in school and in their local communities, is the primary issue for young gay people. There is a lack of support and lack of inclusion of issues affecting lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people in school. We know, from the North, that young gay people are five times more likely to be medicated for depression, two and a half times more likely to commit self-harm and at least three times more likely to commit suicide. We also know that there is a complete absence of real educational support for these young people in school. The report also makes clear that approximately 90% of young people in school know their sexual identity by the age of 14, but they get no support.

I wish to relate to the House some of the sad human messages that come from the background of the Northern Ireland report. One young person said that when in his last year at school he contemplated telling people he was gay, but some of them made derogatory remarks about queers and so he kept quiet. Another stated that a neighbour told his parents and they threw him out saying he was disgusting. He then stayed with some friends but could not get his own place because he was in school. A third said that when the church groups he helped for his Duke of Edinburgh award discovered his sexuality, they asked him to leave as they did not feel it appropriate. A fourth said he approached a youth leader for support. However, he was told to go home and not talk about being gay.

I remind the Minister of State that we know these groups. I speak with particular passion because I have known young people who have committed suicide at an early age. We know that the most vulnerable are young, gay people. The suicide ratio is 4:1 male to female and 3:1 inside that group are young, gay people. Often, this does not come out because the family is ashamed and does not want it to be known that the son was gay. I understand that. There is a problem. We know what it is and how to address it. It is up to the Government to have the courage to do that.