Marie Moloney (Labour)

I welcome the group from Clondalkin, although they have probably left the room. I know many people are listening in on the Internet and I am delighted they have taken the time to do so.

I extend my sincere sympathy to any family in this country that has been affected by suicide. I know exactly the traumatic and devastating effect it has on families and I can guarantee I know exactly how they are feeling.

Rural isolation has a major impact on the number of suicides, especially among older people, particularly older men. I am taking a slightly different line from other speakers, who talked about younger men, but the statistics from rural areas vary somewhat from others. The coroner in south Kerry has stated that tougher drink-driving laws are leading to more suicides among older men who are already suffering from isolation in rural areas. He has gone on the public record saying that. This same coroner previously highlighted a growing incidence of suicide among elderly males and said that while new road safety legislation may be reducing the number of deaths on the roads, it was leading to more suicides. These people are often widowed or single and living alone. They cannot go the local pub for a pint because they are afraid they will be caught drink-driving. They are used to going out for one or two pints a night and meeting their friends, but they are not doing that any more. While I do not condone drink-driving, there is no doubt that in some cases it is leading to rural isolation.

I help deliver meals on wheels in Killarney to the elderly and disabled and I know for a fact that in some cases we are the only people they will see during the day. While they would love us to spend a bit of time chatting with them, we cannot do so because the meals for other recipients are going cold in the car. It just goes to show that people are lonely and isolated. With the closure of post offices, shops and creameries, there is a major gap in social contact in rural Ireland. I will speak about south Kerry because that is the area I know best, but of course this applies to every area of the country. There were 67 suicides in south Kerry in the period from 2005 to 2011; of the victims, 41 were over 40 years of age. There were 11 cases of suicide in the area in 2011. Of the 11 people who took their own lives, two were aged between 22 and 30, two between 31 and 40, three between 41 and 50 and four over 60. The overwhelming majority were men.

Isolation can come in many forms. I know a young girl who was attending secondary school but was very unhappy because she felt isolated. She fell in with the wrong group when she started school and over the years, the group, while they did not bully her, cut her off. She would go into school on a Monday morning and hear that the group had been at the pictures on Saturday night but that she had not been told. She was always hanging on the edge of the group, only spoken to if she asked a question. She noticed them whispering and became paranoid, thinking they were whispering about her. This girl had a very good relationship with her parents, and when they heard what was happening they immediately removed her from the school and put her in a new school, where she blossomed. She made steadfast friends there who are still her friends to this day. Who knows what would have happened had that girl not been able to speak to her parents. Perhaps she would have gone for counselling; I do not know. She did go to her parents and, thank God, they rectified the situation, because she was in a bad state when she came to them.

There should be a media campaign to highlight the services available to help prevent suicide, along the lines of the campaign to reduce road deaths. I was delighted to read in the Minister of State's report - I was listening on the monitor when she came in first - that the advertising campaign is being ramped up. That is welcome news.

In south Kerry at the moment, the only organisation that offers counselling to children and adolescents is the Southwest Counselling Centre. It receives funding from the HSE for children and adolescents, but this is not particularly for suicide prevention. However, it does provide an emergency counselling service for people who may have attempted or who are actively contemplating suicide. It also provides affordable counselling for a range of issues such as depression, anxiety, abuse, bereavement and separation, self-harm and relationship or family problems. We all know that nearly every one of those can lead to suicide. Most of the funding for this counselling centre, which offers a fantastic service to the people of south Kerry, comes from fundraising and donations. I understand that Console, the national organisation for suicide prevention, is to provide free services in Killarney town from next month. This is thanks to a local businesswoman and former nurse who led a project to create greater suicide awareness in Kerry. The clinical director of the counselling centre has advised me that its members are meeting and dealing with more and more people in distress. They have witnessed an increase in the number of people experiencing financial strain and struggling to cope, which can take a serious toll on mental health.

International research shows that the current economic conditions are a factor in increased suicide rates. It is now time for a co-ordinated approach to suicide prevention. It is time for all individuals and groups with significant and varied experience in suicide prevention, education and awareness, research, support and intervention to work together to maintain community-wide suicide awareness and work towards prevention. This is the approach taken by counselling centres such as the Southwest Counselling Centre. If we are really serious about suicide prevention, especially during a time of recession, we will have to consider serious funding for centres such as the Southwest Counselling Centre and all the other centres and organisations throughout the country that are actively working on the ground, day in, day out, doing their best to save lives and give people the confidence and the will to live. They are making life a little brighter for people who are constantly in a dark place. I commend all these organisations that are literally taking people's lives into their hands and that may be the last port of call for people who are in a desperate state.

I ask the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Reilly, to do all in their power to ensure the HSE and the voluntary organisations receive adequate funding to enable them carry out the invaluable lifesaving work.