Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1506 and 1507 together.

Connecting for Life (CfL) is Ireland’s National Strategy to Reduce Suicide. The Strategy focuses on the primary and secondary prevention of suicidal behaviour and addresses a broad range of risk and protective factors.

Following an independent mid-term review, the Department of Health, extended the strategy until 2024.

There are 69 actions under seven strategic goals; 22 government departments/agencies have made commitments as lead and/or supporting partners to deliver on these actions; 23 NGO partners are funded by HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP) to deliver on work aligned with CfL’s strategic objectives.

The HSE NOSP provides cross-sectoral implementation support, in addition to being a named lead and/or supporting partner on 39 CfL actions.

Reflecting the complex process of implementing an inter-departmental and cross-agency strategy there have been three implementation plans for Connecting for Life, our national suicide reduction strategy, across its lifespan to date; Connecting for Life Implementation Plan, 2017-2020, Connecting for Life Implementation Plan, 2020-2022, and Connecting for Life Implementation Plan, 2023-2024. These plans ensure a structured approach to implementation and enable coordination across government departments and agencies on key actions in the strategy.

As at Q4 2023, the most recent implementation status report, updates were received on 62 of the 67 actions in Connecting for Life. Of these 62 actions for which updates were received, 5 were logged as needing attention and 4 were logged as off track, with the remaining 53 actions on track.

As this PQ also raises service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.