Government ‘treats suicide deaths as second class’

A LEADING suicide prevention campaigner has claimed Government is effectively treating the tragedies as “second-class deaths” by failing to provide adequate funding to combat the crisis.

Noel Smyth, chairman of the Turning the Tide of Suicide (3Ts) organisation, made the allegation after figures revealed 527 people officially died by suicide in Ireland last year, a 24% annual increase, and the highest level recorded in this country.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, the campaigner, whose group worked with Console to set up the 24-hour specialist counselling help-line 1Life, said Ireland now has a “cultural problem” as suicide has become “embedded in our society”.