Suicide is a bigger killer now than road accidents
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MORE people died by suicide than in car accidents last year, figures compiled by the Irish Independent reveal.
There were at least 334 suicide verdicts delivered by coroners around the country last year and at least a further 17 open verdicts, thought to be suicide, giving a minimum of 351 suicides.
This exceeds the 336 people killed on the roads last year, and does not even include inquest suicide verdicts from Cork city, Galway city and Limerick city.
Many of the 31 coroners who took part in the survey said that suicide was "as big a problem as ever", with Dublin at the top of the list (100 verdicts), followed by Wicklow (26), Kildare (21), Clare (20), Louth (16) and Mayo (16).
Fine Gael TD Dan Neville said that despite the number of suicides, the Government was only providing €8m this year for suicide prevention, compared to €45m for road traffic accident prevention.
"There's nothing going to be done about it -- it's one of the first places that has been cut."
Those who died by suicide last year ranged from teenagers as young as 14 to people in their 80s and the methods -- which are not published for fear of causing copycat deaths -- also vary.
Many coroners have acknowledged that the official figure for suicides in 2007 --due to be released by the Central Statistics Office later this year -- is likely to be far higher. Wexford North coroner Dr Sean Nixon said the suicide figures were "the bare minimum" due to the inability to bring in such verdicts where there are contentious circumstances.
"I have no doubt that some of the road traffic accidents are suicides as well, but unless someone left a note to leave it clear, it's very difficult," he said.
Problem
Offaly coroner Brian Mahon said suicide was a "huge problem" and a major issue for the country.
"There's a steady drip-drip of sad young male suicides happening all the time. Just every few weekends you get them and it's just dreadful for the families," he said.
He said that a phenomenon of modern suicide was that text messages would be sent by the person who committed suicide.
"It's among younger people of course -- they send farewell messages to their friends but often not to family," he said.
Although there has been publicity about drug-related deaths, Waterford city coroner John Goff pointed out there had been six suicide verdicts in the 11 inquests he had carried out last year.
"I felt suicide was a much bigger problem than drugs -- I'm only a full-time coroner for three years but I'm amazed by the amount of suicides I get," he said.
In the past, suicide was a criminal offence and the Catholic Church refused to allow the bodies to be buried in consecrated ground.
Thus, many coroners adopted the practice of using the verdict of "death according to the medical evidence" and continue to do so, even though suicide was decriminalised in 1993.
Roscommon coroner Des O'Connor said he had never delivered a verdict of suicide, preferring instead to use verdicts such as death by asphyxia, or death by hanging.
"I go according to the medical evidence, that's the way I do it," he said.
Verdicts
However, other coroners, such as Dr Martin Watters, in North Monaghan, said he had always given verdicts of suicide when the evidence backed it up.
"There's no fudging the issue. I have been asked by relatives not to record it, or can I not say something else. I have to call it what it is," he said.
Although the Government is committed to reducing the level of suicide by 20pc during its term of office, it has been criticised by the opposition for the failure to roll out multi-disciplinary community mental healthcare teams and for leaving the positions of suicide prevention officers vacant.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Mary Harney said the Government was fully committed to the implementation of the 'A Vision for Change' strategy and the anti-suicide 'Reach Out' strategy.
"This is reflected in the unprecedented levels of funding provided in recent years for the development of our mental health services. It is estimated that €1bn is now spent on mental health services," she said.
lThe Samaritans provides emotional support to people during times of crisis, including those who are suicidal. Lo call: 1850 60 60 90.
- Michael Brennan Political Correspondent
