Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 27 Nov 2002

Vol. 558 No. 2

Written Answers. - Suicide Prevention.

Seán Power

Question:

178 Mr. S. Power asked the Minister for Health and Children the Government policy in dealing with suicide here; the number of people who have committed suicide in recent years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23942/02]

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. T. O'Malley):

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.

To further reduce the number of suicides it is essential that people undergoing life crises should get appropriate support. In this regard more than €8 million in total has been provided since the publication of the task force report 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 number of deaths by suicide, as published annually by the Central Statistics Office, are as follows – 1998 – 504, 1999 – 439, 2000 – 413, 2001 – 448.

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.