McDaid sorry for hurt of suicide remarks

The Minister for Tourism and Sport has apologised for hurt caused by comments in which he claimed people who commit suicide are "selfish bastards".

Dr McDaid said he had been quoting a friend whose son had killed himself, and the remarks - delivered to a teenage audience in Donegal last week - were intended to make young people reflect upon the effects of suicide on friends and family.

Opposition parties called the comments "cruel and insensitive", but it was generally agreed in his Donegal North East constituency yesterday that Dr McDaid's comments were unlikely to affect his performance in the election.

A TG4/MRBI opinion poll taken early in April found Dr McDaid heading the poll, taking some 25 per cent of first preference votes.

One of his opponents in the constituency, the Labour Party's Jackie McNair, whose own sister committed suicide, described the comments as "very insensitive".

Speaking on RTÉ yesterday, Dr McDaid admitted his comments were "provocative", but also "preventative".

They would be justified if they were "to save one young person [and make them think about] the devastation and the loss and the sense of guilt that they leave behind".

He said the remarks had been inspired by a visit four years ago to a woman whose son had committed suicide three weeks before. "We were sitting in front of the fire and she said to me, 'you know, Doctor, wasn't he an awful selfish bastard?' And I was just quoting what she said."

However, according to a report in the Evening Herald, Dr McDaid prefaced the comments, at a youth forum in Letterkenny, by saying: "I think I have been holding back too long. There is something I have been meaning to say for a long time."

He then told the story about the mother of the suicide victim and added: "I completely agree with her. Ninety per cent of the time suicide is reactive, and anyone who commits suicide is a selfish bastard."

Asked about this on RTÉ, he said he was talking about "a small group of people", especially young men, for whom depression was "reactive".

He added: "In these cases, the act of suicide is a permanent solution to what is often only a temporary problem."

Dr McDaid said his comments had been greeted with "some applause".

But he admitted he had "no great experience of suicide" and added: "If I hurt somebody . . . I sincerely apologise."

The remarks were strongly criticised by a leading suicidologist, Dr John Connolly, who said they were "very simplistic and very worrying".

It was also unacceptable in that he had based his comments on the feelings of a bereaved mother, "who might be experiencing a very big range of conflicting emotions", Dr Connolly added.

Studies showed that 90 per cent of suicide victims were suffering from psychiatric illness and depression at the time of death, and Dr McDaid's comments were "like saying 90 per cent of sick people are selfish bastards".