Suicide figures - Targets can help to cut death rates

THE Government stands accused of a double standard with regard to separate crises which annually claim hundreds of lives in this country.

The coalition’s refusal to set targets for a 20% reduction in Ireland’s appalling suicide level is in stark contrast with its belated crackdown on road carnage — even though more people die from suicide than in road accidents every year.

The bitter irony is that unlike road fatalities, which draw banner headlines and highlight the failed strategy of this administration, suicide is invariably hushed up because of its social stigma.

Moreover, reports of suicide deaths tend to be played down by the media on expert advice from psychiatrists that publicity could trigger an outbreak of copy-cat attempts.

The upshot of the Government’s divergent approach towards these grave issues, which claim hundreds of lives each year, is that while road deaths are finally being tackled, the scourge of suicide has so far failed to set the alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power.

Governments are galvanised into action only when an issue becomes politically explosive and publicly embarrassing. The Fianna Fáil-PD coalition has turned the knee-jerk reaction into an art form.

On the eve of the Bank Holiday weekend, the administration’s penchant for crisis management was evident once again.

Speaking on road deaths, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern declared he was “determined that as a nation we cease the unnecessary carnage, death, injury and grief caused by road collisions”. Nobody would disagree with that sentiment.

However, speaking on suicide, junior minister Tim O’Malley rejected a recommendation from a cross-party Dáil committee to set a target of reducing suicide rates by 20% over the next decade.

His explanation, that the Government would consider setting a target only “when suicide rates have been accurately determined”, does not wash.

There is no denying Mr O’Malley’s personal commitment to addressing the suicide problem which has reached epidemic proportions in this country.

It has to be said, however, that his response to the committee’s call was totally unsatisfactory.

It reeked of what opposition critics described as a “book-keeper’s attitude” to suicide by government. After all, the national suicide rate is already determined as averaging around 450 fatalities a year. What more does the Government need to know?

Among the more heart-rending aspects of the suicide crisis is the number of young men in their late teens, twenties and early thirties, who resort to taking their own lives. Every time a person elects to end his or her life, their families, indeed entire communities, are left to grieve the loss in silence, at a loss to comprehend the reasons for taking their own lives.

There can be no doubt that the Government’s blitz on road fatalities has been prompted by an outburst of public anger over its abysmal failure to get to grips with this on-going scandal.

While driver behaviour improved when penalty points were introduced, it deteriorated over lack of enforcement. Not long ago, the public was being told random mandatory breath-tests could not be introduced for constitutional reasons.

The hypocritical nature of this legal advice is now seen as gardaí conduct such tests without a line of the Constitution being changed.

The result is 30 fewer deaths on the roads since mandatory tests were introduced.

Just as depression can lead to suicide, speed and drink driving are a lethal cocktail behind the bloody carnage on our roads.

On this Bank Holiday, every person has an obligation to ensure the appalling fatalities of the past week will not be repeated.