National suicide level ‘deliberately underrated’

THE National Office for Suicide Prevention’s (NOSP) latest annual report deliberately misled the public by claiming suicide levels fell last year, a leading support group has claimed.

Figures released by the state body last week stated that Ireland’s suicide rate fell from 460 cases in 2007 to 424, the lowest annual level since suicide was decriminalised in 1993.

However, dismissing the figures as “deliberately inaccurate”, a spokesperson for support group Turning the Tide of Suicide (3TS) said the fall only appeared to occur because the NOSP was comparing confirmed overall figures for previous years with provisional registered deaths in 2008.