Public call for €10m spend on suicide prevention

THE next government faces strong public demand to spend €10 million a year on measures to prevent suicide, a lobby group has claimed.

The Action on Suicide Alliance has collected more than 1,000 signatures from individuals and organisations in its petition over the past 10 weeks. It calls for a €50m allocation for the next five years for measures to reduce suicide, and action on a number of reports tackling the issue of mental health in recent years.

The recently formed watchdog body is an umbrella group of 11 organisations working with young people and involved in specific areas of mental health.