Suicide rate significantly higher in Republic than North

Suicide rates in the Republic are much higher than in the North, a study showed today.

Researchers said the number of people taking their own lives was 47% higher south of the border.

They suggested the striking difference could be down to the varying prevention campaigns or alternative methods for recording such deaths.

The figures were revealed in the Population Health Observatory (INIsPHO) study, which looked at the years between 2001 and 2004.

Fine Gael TD Dan Neville, president of the Irish Association of Suicidology, said suicide claimed more lives than road crashes.

However, the Government provides 10 times more money for road awareness campaigns, he claimed.

“Preventative responses to suicide need to be embedded into a wide range of areas of societal policy that include education, criminal justice and health,” Mr Neville said.

“The budget of €3.05m allocated by Government is totally inadequate and must be increased immediately to €10m

“The Government allocates €40m to the Road Safety Authority.

“All deaths are tragic but it is a fact that more people die by suicide than on our roads,” he said.

According to INIsPHO, the suicide rate for the Republic was 12.4 per 100,000 of the population compared with 8.4 per 100,000 in the North.

The total number of people who died by suicide in 2006 was 409 – the most recent annual figure – whereas 336 people died on the country’s roads last year.

Between 2001 and 2004 Offaly, Cork and Leitrim had the highest suicide rates on the island.

Coleraine, Dungannon, and Moyle in the North had the lowest, according to the study.

Mr Neville, who chairs the joint Oireachtas sub-committee on suicide, said Ireland had the fifth highest rate of youth suicide in Europe.

“There is an urgent need for research to identify the reasons why so many of our young people, with their life opportunities ahead of them, take their own lives,” he said.

“It is important that the reasons why this is happening are identified and understood so that society may respond appropriately.

“The psychological and social pressures on young people in the first decade of the 21st Century must be clearly identified and programmes to equip young people to respond to those pressures should be introduced.”