Seanad debates

Wednesday, 21 October 2009

3:00 pm

Photo of Mary WhiteMary White (Fianna Fail)

I am a policy-driven Senator and I can stand over my record. I produced a document in 2006 on suicide in the new Ireland. I commend the Irish Examiner on publishing the tremendous article on suicide written by Fiachra O Cionnaith. He said it was reported by the national office of suicide prevention that 1.7% of all deaths every year are due to suicide. This means one death in every 59 is by suicide and since the start of this decade more than 4,000 people officially have died by suicide while another 1,000 deaths have been classified as undetermined. He noted that these figures combined mean that almost 2,000 more people have died by suicide in Ireland this decade than during the 30 years of civil strife in the North. I am critical of the Government because it has not delivered on the 33 recommendations in the Oireachtas report on suicide prevention. There are more deaths by suicide than by car accident. Our entire parliamentary party meeting last night was taken up with the issue of road deaths.

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