More than 11,000 admissions to Accident and Emergency departments each year are the result of suicidal behaviour, according to a new Government report.
The report by the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children entitled "The High Level of Suicide in Irish Society" found suicide rates in Ireland were ranked 18th of EU countries in 2004.
However, Ireland has the fifth-highest rate of suicide among young people aged 15 to 24 years. Young men are seven times more likely than young women to commit suicide.
There has also been a sharp increase in suicide rates in Ireland over the past two decades, said the report, published today, and this "demands decisive action by Government".
The report found that the rise has been particularly evident among males under 35-years-old but has also found an emerging trend in young female suicides of those aged less than 25 years.
The committee called for a target to be set to reduce the rate of suicide in Ireland by 20 per cent over the next ten years.
Among 30 recommendations contained in the report are education initiatives, policy for mental health promotion and improved procedures for discharging and transferring mental health patients.
It also recommends the implementation of the National Strategic Task Force on Alcohol as it says "there is a well established role of alcohol in completed suicide and in suicidal behaviour".
The report acknowledges that 55 per cent of those who die by suicide do so at their first attempt. But it adds that a "systematic approach to the assessment of those who engage in non fatal suicidal behaviour can prevent repeated episodes of self harm, some of which will have a fatal outcome."
The report highlighted that there is a close relationship between suicide and mental illness with those with psychotic illnesses are at 10 to 15 per cent risk of dying by suicide. This, the report said made "it imperative to make psychiatric services more accessible".