Vol. 555 No. 2
103 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Health and Children his views on the number of young people who have taken their own lives in the north inner city of Dublin to date in 2002; his further views on this crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15653/02]
The most recent information released by the Central Statistics Office states that 67 deaths from suicide were registered during the first quarter of this year. Some 15 of these registered suicides relate to the Dublin area. My Department does not, however, have information about how many of these 15 registrations relate to the north inner city. Information relating to suicides registered during the second quarter of this year is to be released by the Central Statistics Office shortly.
Considerable progress has been made to date in the implementation of the recommendations of the report of the national task force on suicide. Many of the recommendations of the task force, however, require continuous development particularly in the area of training and in the development of services relating to suicide and suicide prevention. I am fully committed to supporting suicide prevention programmes and the health strategy Quality and Fairness: A Health System for You, published last year, includes a commitment to intensify the existing suicide prevention programmes over the coming years.
In order to further reduce the number of suicides it is essential that people undergoing life crises should get appropriate support. In this regard over €6 million has been provided since the publication of the report of the task force on suicide towards suicide prevention and towards research aimed at improving understanding of this issue. Additional funding has also been made available to further develop child and adolescent psychiatry, adult psychiatry and old age psychiatry services to assist in the early identification of suicidal behaviour and to provide the necessary support and treatment to individuals at risk. The additional resources required to continue the work in suicide prevention will be considered in the context of the overall determination of expenditure for mental health services for 2003 and subsequent years.
