Mary White (Fianna Fail)

There are so few ladies here, we really have to stick together. I want to put on the record some points about the document I produced in 2008 concerning what we can do about suicide in the new Ireland. It is still very much an issue that is taboo, no matter what we say. I prepared my document as a lay person. I held public meetings in the city here and spoke to parents and family members of those, young and old, who have died by suicide.

There are three elements, which it has been proven internationally in the most up-to-date academic work, that can act to reduce the incidence of suicide. One is alcohol consumption. There is no doubt that we in this country are too free and easy about alcohol. The problem goes on and on but we do not address it. Nearly half of those who die from suicide have alcohol in their blood. That does not mean they drank themselves to death but if they were feeling depressed or overwhelmed by economic problems, which are rampant during this time of economic recession, alcohol would mean they could not have thought rationally or thought of how they could get out of a situation.

We need a national campaign of awareness because we are too liberal with alcohol. As I have said many times, while I am not against alcohol consumption, just walking around a supermarket here or in the North, one can see the prevalence of tins of beer, full trolleys and so on. I have no doubt the consumption of alcohol is a huge part of the prevalence of mental illness and affects general mental health, quite apart from death from suicide.

One way of reducing alcohol consumption, which has been proven internationally, is to ensure GPs are trained up to modern, best-in-the-class standards in regard to identifying depression when they see it, and are up to date on how they treat it, whether through counselling, medication or otherwise. Having spoken to parents whose child died from suicide, I know their GPs often told them their teenager would grow out of it. The incidence of suicide is quite flat until children reach the age of 17 or 18 and it then rises very fast, especially among young men, who are four times more likely to die from suicide than women. Parents told me that their doctors told them their child would grow out of this depression, yet they died from suicide. That has been my experience from these meetings.

A second element is the restriction of access to lethal means. We have talked in this Chamber over the years of how unfair the waiting list is for children with mental problems who cannot afford counselling. I pushed in the House for the health service throughout the country to have a plan for each health service area in order that children who cannot afford it could access counselling. Hundreds of depressed children are waiting for help, and even children of ten or 12 years may be suicidal. We need to achieve delivery on this in order that we can get rid of the waiting list for children awaiting counselling, which would help them to stabilise and improve their cognitive skills.

We all feel in bad form now and again, and I am still not feeling great over our post-election trauma. I am still quite upset. I have just come from a committee. It is very frustrating being in Opposition. At that committee this morning with representatives from the Assembly and Westminster and Seanad colleagues, I was reassured something will happen that I can get stuck into. It was great when we had our parliamentary party meetings with the Taoiseach.