Twenty-three suicides by children were reported to the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) in the last school year, according to figures presented at a meeting of the service last week.
The meeting was told that its psychologists were needed in more than 100 critical incidents during the last school year 2006/2007. These included the 23 suicides of schoolgoing children, 24 incidents involving car accidents and nine murders that had an impact on local schools.
The service, which operates under the aegis of the Department of Education, provides assistance on request to all schools and school communities that experience critical incidents.
Earlier this year, a report on the state of the nation's children said suicide accounted for 22 per cent of all deaths in the 10-17 age group in 2004.
The report, compiled by the Department of Health and Children, pointed to a much higher suicide rate among boys (six for every 100,000) compared with girls (two per 100,000). Among 15- to 19-year-olds the male suicide rate is six times higher than the female rate.
Last night, Geoff Day, head of the National Office for Suicide Prevention, said the Republic had the seventh-highest youth suicide rate in the EU.
If anything, the school psychologists' figures probably understate the extent of the problem as many teenagers who died by suicide were no longer in formal schooling, he said.
Mr Day said the contributory factors to the high suicide rate among Irish teenagers included exam pressure, high parental expectations, gender issues, bullying and relationship pressures.
Earlier this month, the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, told the Dáil that the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) programme in schools was "a very important strand of government policy in addressing a range of social and health issues covered by the National Suicide Prevention Strategy".
SPHE is compulsory at Junior Cert level but a programme for Leaving Cert students is still in development.
SPHE modules at Junior Cert deal specifically with issues like belonging and integrating, handling conflict constructively, bullying, dealing with peer pressure, coping with stress, emotional health and wellbeing, influences on decision-making, and relationships and sexuality education.
Schools also use Mental Health Matters, a resource pack on mental health for 14- to 18-year-olds developed by Mental Health Ireland on an optional basis as a module in the Transition Year Programme.
