I suggest that the concern expressed earlier by the Taoiseach for the young men and women of Ireland is belied by the grim reality facing young people in this country as a result of the austerity cuts and unemployment that are resulting from this Government's policies. This grim reality was revealed in the recently published report of the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland and the National Office for Suicide Prevention which reveals the appalling fact that 165 young people in the South of Ireland took their own lives last year and that the suicide rate among young people in Ireland is one of the highest in Europe. That report linked this directly to recession and unemployment. It also noted that the countries with the highest increases in suicide were Greece, with a 17% increase, and Ireland, with a 13% increase. I put it to the Taoiseach that these facts speak for themselves.

The austerity policies being pursued by this Government and the troika are resulting in despair and hopelessness among many young people, leading directly to this shocking increase in suicide. Is there not a direct connection between young nurses being asked to work for 20% less than nurses who qualified a few years ago, young teachers being asked to work for 30% less than teachers who qualified a few years ago, young junior doctors, a number of whom committed suicide last year, being asked to work unsafe hours in our hospitals, cuts in guidance counsellors for young people when early intervention is so vital to protect them from despair and hopelessness and chronic unemployment and emigration, which disproportionately affect our young people?

A question please.

Do our young graduates and workers deserve to pay the price for the crimes of others and a crisis that is not their fault? Does the Taoiseach recognise that if young people are treated as second class citizens they will feel like second class citizens and therein lies the road to despair? What does the Taoiseach propose to do to give hope and a prospect of a future to our young people so they do not feel this level of despair?

Hear, hear.

We had some questions on this issue yesterday. In the three years prior to the election of this Government to office 250,000 jobs were lost in the private sector in this country, which directly affected many of the people of whom Deputy Boyd Barrett speaks.

There are now more than 400,000 people unemployed.

It is the challenge of Government to rectify the problems it inherited in this regard, to rectify our public finances-----

The Taoiseach is promising everything.

-----to change the structure of how we do business, to grow our economy and to create jobs.

The Government is taking its time.

This cannot be done unless there is trust and an understanding that this country will do as it says it will. At long last, there are signs of confidence in this country, including investor confidence, and our international reputation has been restored. We are moving in the right direction.

The Taoiseach is the only person who believes that.

I sympathise with every family in this country who has lost a family member through suicide. I have visited the homes of many such people and have heard them voice the unspeakable questions of whether they should have noticed something, asked a particular question or done something. Deputy Boyd Barrett made the point in his normal charge that this is the result of continuing austerity by Government. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, who has a genuine interest in this area has been given a budget which is ringfenced for addressing this issue.

That budget was not spent last year.

Nothing happened last year.

Perhaps Deputy McGrath would be quiet for once while we discuss this serious matter.

Hear, hear.

The budget for the National Office for Suicide Prevention has increased from €4.1 million to €8.1 million.

That is not the issue.

The Deputy's colleague spoke about austerity and cuts in this area. Everybody understands the enormous amount of work that is being done to attempt to prevent this phenomenon from continuing at its current rate.

Treating the symptoms rather than the problem.

From that point of view the report by the Men's Health Forum in Ireland, published today by the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, will indicate unfortunately that the suicide rate in Ireland is one of the highest in Europe for young males between 20 and 24 years of age and females aged between 50 and 54. The latest data show 552 people committed suicide in Ireland in 2009, the year for which the latest figures are available. The allocation of the ring-fenced €35 million for 2012 was used primarily to strengthen the community mental health teams in adult and children mental health services. Some of these funds will be used to advance further suicide prevention measures and to initiate the provision of psychological and counselling services in primary care, particularly for people with mental health problems. The announcement in the budget for 2013 of a further €35 million for the continued development of our mental health services is important and means the recruitment of 470 additional staff to implement these measures. It is not always about this. The young generation gets its information in a very different way than Deputy Boyd Barrett or I did when we were growing up. There are always different pressures on young minds. This is a sad fact. This is an issue for which there is now a huge range of organisations, groups, teams and agencies working. The Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, wishes to concentrate on having very effective connection with young people so this issue, which is so tragic, can be prevented. I am able to inform the House the National Office for Suicide Prevention has implemented most of the recommendations in the strategy in a four-way approach through delivering a general population approach to mental health promotion and suicide prevention; using targeted programmes for people at high risk; delivering services to individuals who have engaged in deliberate self-harm; and providing support to families and communities bereaved by suicide.

I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett from the perspective that 26 million people are unemployed in the European Union and 29% of young people in Ireland are unemployed while the figure in Germany and Austria is 3%. Part of the EU Presidency priorities for the Government will be to work specifically in the area of youth employment and opportunities for young people. We all agree and understand they are the future of this country and of the European Union. The challenge for the Government is to get decisions made in the first instance which will allow indigenous confidence to come back, whereby young people can see motivation and opportunity and are given a demonstration that hope is not just an aspiration and that it can come by the people and the Government working together here and with their European colleagues to provide these opportunities.

In recent months I have met many people who are driven by an opportunity that presents itself. I see signs of confidence returning and the news from our colleagues in Europe in recent days, as the Minister, Deputy Noonan, pointed out is significant but not a game changer. We must help create this game changer ourselves.

It was a game changer last year.

To use the Tánaiste's phrase.

Well may Deputy Martin sneer, laugh and be cynical-----

I am not. I am just noting the differentiation in language between the Minister, Deputy Noonan, and the Tánaiste.

-----but he left behind a legacy that no other Government in the history of the State had to face and with which we are dealing.

He should not have bothered togging out if it is not a game changer. What did he go there for?

Is Deputy Higgins representing the Technical Group or is it Deputy Boyd Barrett?

The Taoiseach is not getting the point of the question. The report states while death rates from suicide decreased by 15% between 2000 and 2007, a reversal of this pattern coincided with the onset of recession in 2008. The countries with the highest suicide rate increases were those most affected by the recession, namely, Greece and Ireland. At the end of last year, the Taoiseach was written to, as were we all, by a junior doctor who has since emigrated. He stated the illegal working hours he and his colleagues performed were leading to suicide, burnout, depression, alcohol misuse, road traffic accidents and deaths. The same sense of despair is being felt by young people who either cannot find work or, in the case of young nurses and teachers, are being treated as second-class citizens, and being asked to work with the same responsibilities and long hours for 20% or 30% less than people who qualified a few years ago.

I ask the Deputy to put a question.

Is it the case that the policies of cuts and austerity which the Taoiseach is imposing are leading directly to the sense of despair and hopelessness felt among young people which is leading to this increase in suicide rates? Words about doing things and about youth unemployment are no good if the policies being pursued are leading directly to youth unemployment and despair among young people generally.

This is why there was no increase in income tax for anybody in the country, because we believe a tax on jobs is an imposition.

Where will they get the property tax? The Taoiseach insults us.

The Taoiseach is not talking to his own in Mayo.

Bring it out as a CD next Christmas.

Vampire tax.

The Deputies had their chance. I do not believe in having any discrimination among the citizens in the country. The Deputy fails to understand that it was assumed the veneer of invincibility of previous Governments in recent years could keep paying the rates at which money was being doled out.

The Taoiseach promised to spend a fortune when he was on this side of the House. Every day of the week he promised to spend millions.

We must now deal with the challenge. We will never get the country right unless we deal with our public finances and the deficit. We can only deal with it ourselves. Deputy Boyd Barrett seems to think one can continue to pay exceptional salaries on fantasy money.

The Taoiseach is doing that; he is in receipt of one.

I believe many of those young people would be more than willing-----

The Taoiseach's policies are only helping the bondholders.

-----to build on their graduate experience and work in Irish hospitals as Irish nurses on salaries that are equivalent to starting salaries in the accountancy sector or the teaching sector.

As a trainee, not a fully qualified person.

They are not as high as salaries were in the past but they are job opportunities for the future. For the information of Deputies, in 2012 of the €12 million allocated for suicide prevention €7.1 million went to the National Office for Suicide Prevention and the remaining €5 million was used regionally to fund resource officers for suicide prevention, self harm liaison nurses in hospital emergency departments and a number of local suicide prevention issues. A further €1 million is being provided to the national office from the additional moneys allocated for this year, bringing the total to €8.1 million. A special programme of measures to further advanced suicide prevention in 2013 is being developed by the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch. In 2012, 414 posts were approved, 135 posts were filled, 208 have been accepted subject to process clearances and Garda vetting, and the remainder are at various stages of selection. The same will apply for this year.

I admit the appointment of personnel and the money are not all the answer to the problem. What is the answer to giving hope and inspiration to young people is the Government working effectively with our colleagues in Europe demonstrating the economics of our country-----

It is not doing a very good job.

-----are coming right and there are job opportunities. The Deputy should have listened to the national media in the past three days as even they were surprised at the positive news of investment and job creation in the country.

That proves it.

This is where the hope lies for the future but the Deputy does not want to believe it-----

It is called spin.

-----because he has a vested interest in seeing the country not thrive and not prosper. We are moving away from his position of wanting demonstrations every day. We want to give hope and inspiration and a demonstration that things do work for young people.

The Taoiseach will have young nurses demonstrating in the near future.

I am glad to see it is moving in the right direction. Someday Deputy Boyd Barrett might realise it.