Effective cooperation must be assured to tackle suicide

12.40.00pm GMT Wed 22nd Mar 2006

Young Alliance Chair Cllr Ian James Parsley has stated that effective cooperation is essential to tackle the scourge of rising suicide rates.

Speaking as a new suicide prevention centre was opened in North Belfast, the North Down Councillor stated: "More people are now committing suicide in Northern Ireland each year than are being killed on our roads. This is a truly shocking statistic, especially when you consider the disproportionate effect on young people in both cases. Suicide now takes

more young people from us than the 'Troubles' did at any stage in the past generation.

"It is a scandal that local politicians are shirking their responsibility to reallocate funds sensibly, instead allowing unaccountable direct-rule ministers or, worse still, 'Commissioners' to do it for them. The fact is that Northern Ireland has been awash with public money from London, Brussels and elsewhere for a decade, yet suicide prevention, youth counselling services and after-school clubs have lost out.

"It is time we stopped wasting our money on daft nonsense. Why on earth spend £12 million on an Ulster-Scots dictionary no one can read when essential services to fight suicide go to the wall for want of a few thousand? It is not good enough just to say 'We're not going to do the Government's dirty work' - there is a set amount of funding there, and it is up to politicians to spend it wisely.

"We also have far too many groups doing the same job, while not enough doing key jobs. We do not need groups in every district of the city to deal with suicide prevention and postvention, we need a single group amassing all available expertise to tackle the issue for everyone in Northern Ireland. I hope the new centre is a step in that direction. We have the expertise available, not least in our universities, and it is time we used it to full effect.

"Suicide rates are soaring in Northern Ireland. Some 'peace dividend' that is! It is time our politicians stopped escaping reality and stepped forward to ensure the most effective anti-suicide strategy and facility possible. I wish the new Centre well."

ENDS