Suicide crisis - Are we really serious about suicide?

WHEN Ireland’s deadly dance with the spectre of suicide was first recognised officially as a ‘crisis’, a 10-year campaign was launched in a fanfare of publicity to prove the Government was serious about tackling an emergency that accounted for more lives than road fatalities.

That was four years ago. Today, the political reality is that Government support remains negligible when measured against the sheer scale of a crisis which continues to reap a grim toll among the most vulnerable people in Irish society.

Any doubts about the Coalition’s lack of urgency in tackling the Republic’s inordinately high suicide rate were dispelled earlier this month when Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had to apologise for making a reference to suicide in a speech which misfired badly at the ICTU conference in Donegal.