‘Alcohol main cause of rise in suicide rate’

ALCOHOL is a “fundamental cause” of the massive increase in suicide in recent years, an Oireachtas sub-committee heard yesterday.

But the Government has failed to counter the aggressive efforts of the drinks industry to increase sales, the sub-committee, which is probing the high levels of suicide in Ireland, was told.

Dr Conor Farren, a consultant psychiatrist at St Patrick's Hospital in Dublin, said that there had been a vast increase in alcohol consumption and a parallel increase in the suicide rate.