A mental health programme for schoolchildren, linked with counselling and psychological services, is among the main recommendations of the National Task Force on Suicide.
The Minister for Health and Children, Mr Cowen, introduced the report yesterday.
It also calls for restrictions on the prescribing of potentially lethal medication and for limits on the amount of paracetamol that can be bought over the counter.
Schoolchildren should learn how to cope with problems and how to cultivate positive mental health, the report says.
This should be introduced "at an early stage as a natural part of their health-care curriculum".
Guidance counsellors should be available to all schools, it says, and all students who need them should be able to get psychological services without undue delay.
It says it is concerned about the adequacy of educational school psychology services for the assessment of children attending national schools and that the service should be expanded.
Recent recommendations by the Irish Medical Board that the amount of paracetamol a person can buy be restricted to one pack per person should be given the force of law, the task force says.
The labelling should include a warning that "immediate medical advice should be sought in the event of overdose because of the risk of irreversible liver damage".
The warning to seek immediate hospital treatment after an overdose should be repeated in a public information campaign, it says.
If these measures do not work, "consideration may have to be given in future to restricting the sale of paracetamol containing products to pharmacies."
The report also calls for:
Training for health board and other social service personnel on dealing with suicide and attempted suicide.
The creation of a Suicide Research Group by the health boards.
More information to be collected by gardai reporting suicides to the Central Statistics Office.
Preventive services aimed at high-risk groups including prisoners.
Careful scrutiny of applications for firearms licences.
Legal limits on the amounts of potentially fatal drugs that can be prescribed for people who have a history of deliberate self-poisoning.
Assessment of suicide risk before patients with mental health problems are sent home by hospitals.