Suicide is costing the economy up to €900 million a year due to lost market output and a range of other cost factors, an Oireachtas health committee heard yesterday.
Researchers in the department of economics at NUI Galway, which made the estimates based partly on research in other jurisdictions, identified three potential economic costs associated with suicide: direct, indirect and human.
Direct costs, such as monetary outlays associated with suicide and its aftermath, were estimated to have cost almost €1.8 million in 2001, when 519 people died as a result of suicide.
Indirect costs, such as the value of lost output or production arising from suicide, were estimated to cost more than €250 million.
Human costs, which refer to the value that individuals place on their lives beyond their capacity to work, were estimated to cost €653 million.
The researchers said the figures showed investment in suicide prevention and mental health promotion could yield significant returns in reducing lost market output.
The figures were quoted by the principal officer of the Department of Health's mental health division, Bairbre Nic Aongusa, in illustrating the need for investment in suicide prevention.
She was speaking at a series of committee meetings organised by the Oireachtas Committee on Health, which is preparing a report on the high levels of suicide in Irish society.
The head of the newly established National Office for Suicide Prevention, Geoff Day, said the cost of implementing actions in the first phase of a new 10-year strategy on suicide prevention was estimated at €3 million.
He said this funding, if made available by the Health Service Executive (HSE), would be used to begin the implementation of 10 key targets.
These include developing a primary care fast-track response to identified suicide risk, appointing four regional training officers to implement an extensive training programme and implementing a national anti-stigma campaign, he said.
"This is an ambitious programme which, with appropriate resources, will build on the valued work being undertaken by statutory services, voluntary organisations and local communities," Mr Day said.
He added that the national office would establish an advisory group of people with expertise in suicide prevention.
Fine Gael's spokesman on mental health, Dan Neville TD, said it was worrying there was no guarantee that funds would be released at a time of widespread concern over the level of suicide in this country.