Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The information brought to the attention of the House this afternoon by Senator Jillian van Turnhout is truly shocking and alarming. I certainly support her call to invite the Minister for Health to the House urgently to discuss the use of the dangerous chemicals she described. Anything that puts the health of young children and children with autism at risk is certainly to be treated with the utmost seriousness and requires our urgent attention.

I support the call of Senator Gilroy – I intended to make it myself today – for the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, to come to the House to discuss investment in mental health services. I do so against the background of the CSO's suicide statistics published last week, which show that in 2011 there were 554 deaths in Ireland from suicide, 59 more than in 2010. The year 2011 had the highest number of deaths from self-harm since 2001, when there were 519. It is particularly frightening and worrying that in 2011 there were 458 male suicides - almost 83% of the total - compared with 96 female suicides. The standardised suicide rate in 2010, according to the latest available data, was 11.8 per 100,000 of population in the EU 28 member states compared with 10.9 per 100,000 in Ireland. The highest rate was in Lithuania, which had a rate of 32.9 per 100,000, and the lowest was in Greece, where the rate was 3.3 per 100,000.

There are many organisations doing wonderful work raising awareness of mental health issues and suicide and supporting families. We need to have a debate on how the HSE and other relevant organisations can work together and dovetail in a much more effective manner to help people with suicidal tendencies and address the major crisis facing our country. Five hundred and fifty-four is nearly twice the number of people killed on our roads annually. There is a major crisis, therefore, and there is a need for a major debate in this House with the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch.