John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Senator MacSharry’s Bill is very welcome in so far as it gives us the opportunity to discuss this important issue. We will not be supporting the Bill for several reasons, however. In doing so, I do not want to be seen as being at odds with Senator MacSharry. I commend him on his good and useful report on suicide for his party.

Section 2 provides for the Minister to make regulations that allow for a levy at point-of-sale, payable by the licensee and to be collected by the Revenue Commissioners. It is accepted there is a significant correlation between alcohol consumption and suicide. In the early part of this century, rates of alcohol consumption were high and suicide rates were correspondingly high. From 2007, consumption levels dropped with a parallel drop in suicide rates. However, new evidence shows the rate of suicide is again creeping upwards. When we debated this at the health committee when I published a report on suicide, the Central Statistics Office did not really agree with me on it. The point is that whatever position one takes to start will determine whether it is increasing or decreasing. If we say the rate of suicide is increasing and start from 1960, it can certainly be shown to be the case. The real point is not to get involved in an argument about the process, as there are other dynamics at work, for example, the recession. The National Suicide Research Foundation has recently published figures which showed between 305 and 560 extra deaths by suicide in the past five years may have been caused by the recession.

Senator MacSharry’s Bill wants to get a little beyond revenue-raising. We need to examine this with regard to the proposed minimum-pricing legislation for alcohol. We need to be cognisant of the effects of one on the other to ensure that one does not negate the effect of the other to such an extent as to make both meaningless. That is the single reason I will not support this Bill.

As a Government spokesperson on health, I am expected to state the great job we are doing with mental health services. I got a briefing note earlier today to say exactly that. However, I will not because I do not believe we are making a good job of mental health services at all. We are very poor at policy, expecting to feed in policy at the top and find it oven-ready at the bottom without mediating steps in between. Our ten-year policy on suicide prevention, Reach Out, will expire this year with having had no interim reviews to analyse changing circumstances over a decade.

I refer to the 560 extra deaths that occurred in the past five years, a period halfway through the Reach Out policy, which did not take into account changed circumstances. It is not good enough for us to stand here and say that we are doing a good job with mental health services when we are not. Senator Darragh O'Brien referred to geographical areas where there are serious problems in the mental health services, including Galway, north Dublin, Kerry, Carlow and Kilkenny. I have been a psychiatric nurse for 28 years and was a trade union representative for much of that time. Many of my former colleagues phone me in exasperation at the state of the health services. We cannot say we are doing a good job. Ninety young people were admitted to adult psychiatric wards last year, which is unacceptable.

The recently published report by the Mental Health Commission contains nine fairly damning charges against our policy. These reports are written by civil servants who couch their language in a particular way. The report says that policies are implemented inconsistently and that there are shortfalls in filling posts, notwithstanding the money that has been allocated to it. There are nine criticisms of the Minister of State in the report of the chairman of the Mental Health Commission, and we must sit down and reflect on it as a Government.

The Bill proposed by Senator Marc MacSharry is welcome and needs discussion. Even though we will not support the Bill, I urge the Senator to send the proposals and his policy to the National Office for Suicide Prevention for consideration in the new suicide prevention framework later this year. I have confidence that the National Office for Suicide Prevention will produce a comprehensive policy for reducing suicide. I have much more to say about this but, as indicated by the Leader, we will have a further debate in September and I look forward to making a contribution at that point.