As the Minister is probably aware, Cork City Council last month became the first council to support a motion seeking the establishment of an all-Ireland national suicide authority. The impact of suicide across the island is dreadful. In 2011 alone, more than 1,000 citizens died as a consequence of suicide. Every town, village and community and virtually every family has been affected by this tragic crisis. The number of road deaths in 2011 stood at 245. Despite the major gap between the number of deaths caused by suicide and the number of road traffic fatalities, suicide prevention does not secure the same level of investment and resources as road safety. An island-wide national emergency is occurring in respect of suicide and it requires an island-wide emergency national response.

The Minister will agree that suicide prevention is under-resourced. Recently, in his home city of Cork, a minor who presented at Mercy University Hospital seeking assistance for mental health issues had to remain in the accident and emergency department as there was no bed available in the child and adolescent unit in Bessborough, Blackrock. The young girl had to stay in the accident and emergency department for four full days before being eventually transferred to the adult psychiatric services in St. Michael's unit where she remained for two weeks. Does the Minister agree that this is completely unacceptable, mental health services are under-resourced and the matter must be addressed immediately? Does he also agree that the national crisis requires a national, all-Ireland response?

I agree with almost all the points the Deputy raises. Mental health provision in the health service has been grossly underfunded in the past. I spent three years on the former Southern Health Board's mental services committee, as it was known at the time. Until recently, there was a significant deficit in terms of funding and expenditure in this area. The programme for Government included a commitment to a special additional allocation to mental health services of €35 million last year and this year, respectively, primarily to strengthen community health teams in adult and child mental health services and further develop suicide prevention initiatives. The majority of the recommendations of ReachOut, the national plan of action on suicide prevention, have been implemented. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Alex White, will shortly bring proposals to Government on alcohol misuse which, as the Deputy will be aware, is frequently linked to mental health and suicide.

I agree with the Deputy that mental health services have been wrongly neglected in respect of funding and prioritisation. The position is changing under this Government, not before time, and we will continue to prioritise the mental health sector. For example, in January last, the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, launched guidance on mental health and suicide prevention for post-primary schools. The Deputy is correct to continue to raise this issue because it is one on which the Government needs to be pressed. I assure him, however, that we are more than aware that we must catch up in the area of mental health services. We are acting on this issue by increasing expenditure and launching new initiatives to try to address the matter.

On the question of whether an all-island approach is required, the honest answer is that I do not know whether conversations on this issue have taken place on a cross-Border basis. I will, however, ask the Minister to revert to the Deputy directly on the matter.

That the Minister agrees with me on the points I raised is welcome. I would also welcome any additional resources the Government were to invest, if that is the correct word, or spend in the field of suicide prevention. Last month, the 3Ts charity - Turn The Tide on Suicide - published a report entitled, Suicide in Ireland 2003-2008, which made for grim reading. Every Deputy should take the time to read this document, which revealed the startling fact that one child under 18 years dies by suicide every 18 days. Moreover, the State has the fourth highest youth suicide rate in Europe and the figure is increasing. Despite this, the appropriate services do not appear to be available when required, including in the case to which I referred.

The Minister agreed with me that the current position is unacceptable. Given that the current suicide strategy concludes in 2014, will the Minister ask his colleague, the Minister for Health, to accelerate the provision of a new strategy to ensure there is no gap in service provision or strategy in the coming years?

Absolutely. That is the reason the Government prioritised this area in contrast to the previous Government by introducing new initiatives and increasing expenditure on mental health services despite facing difficult budgetary challenges. We must continue to prioritise this area. Developments over the past four or five years have placed extreme pressure on many families and young people, especially young men, resulting in higher levels of stress and mental illness and an increase in the number of suicides. The Government has a significant responsibility, when many families are continuing to experience difficulty, to provide structures, support, staffing and finance in this area. We need modern initiatives to assist our understanding of suicide and suicide prevention and we must put anything learned from such initiatives into effect. We have competent Ministers to perform this task, in particular, the Ministers of State, Deputies Alex White and Kathleen Lynch. I am confident the Cabinet will continue to prioritise this area.

I would appreciate if the Deputy would forward details of the case to which he referred. While the circumstances he described appear to be unacceptable, I would like to have more background details to allow me to fully understand the position.