Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Colleagues will agree that the number of suicides about which we hear, in both our communities and nationally, is frightening. I am conscious that many of us wonder whether to talk about this and how to do so. I am mindful of the many people who are suffering as a result of a family member taking his or her own life. This is a serious problem and we must talk about it and keep it on the agenda. In Mayo News lately, the coroner for north Mayo, Dr. Eleanor Fitzgerald, commented that the number of suicides she was dealing with was alarming. She said:

The suicide increases in Mayo, including young people, is alarming. Up to 50 percent of inquests held are because of self-inflicted injuries and suicide ... It is disheartening to see young people give up on life.

The Galway coroner, Dr. Ciaran McLoughlin, reported in The Connacht Tribuneearlier this month that a recently held inquest dealt with five suicides, including that of a young teenage boy. There are often suicide attempts in the waterways of Galway city and suicides late at night when people who need support and may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol take that final, tragic, utterly mistaken decision. Indeed, every few days there seem to be reports of people entering the waterways in Galway, with a number of tragic and untimely deaths in the past few weeks alone.

There is an initiative in Galway whereby local people are asking Galway City Council to take proactive steps to increase the chances of survival for a person who jumps into the River Corrib in Galway or someone who falls in accidentally. We know that many people who attempt or commit suicide can change their minds. The reality is that if that person has entered a certain part of the river in Galway, even if he or she instantly regrets his or her course of action, his or her chances of getting to safety are low given that the river is so fast-flowing. A petition has been signed by nearly 30,000 people asking Galway City Council to introduce some measures including safety nets along the walkways along the river and ropes across the river that a person being swept along at speed might be able to reach out for. The petition calls for safety ladders at regular intervals and sensors. There are a good number of life rings along the walkway, I am talking about the section of the river from the Salmon Weir Bridge to the Wolfe Tone Bridge in particular. The council is to be commended on the provision of those rings but more must be done. Nets and ropes can be implemented at minimal cost. I urge the council to address this as a matter of priority.

Organisations such as Limerick Suicide Watch deserve huge support and credit. The National Suicide Prevention Office and the Connecting for Life programme, which seeks to reduce suicides by 2020 via seven goals, are good but more focus is needed. Our colleague, Senator Freeman, has led the way in providing support services for persons contemplating suicide through Pieta House and many of us are involved in the Darkness Into Light event in May. I raise this matter in the knowledge that colleagues will agree that suicide prevention and constant attention to providing more and better support services must be a priority for Government and at local authority level. I worry about the impact of recent cost excesses in other areas of the national budget. I am calling on Galway City Council in particular to take heed of the people who are calling for further safety features along the River Corrib.