THE NUMBER OF LIVES lost to suicide in Ireland in 2012 was slightly lower than that in 2011, according to official data published today.

The Central Statistics Office data indicates that 507 people took their own lives in 2012, a figure which marks a slight decrease on the 525 indicated in the office’s figures for 2011.

The suicide prevention charity Console said the nominal decrease in suicides did not reveal the full picture, and supported calls for a real-time register to note suicide deaths.

Its director of services Ciaran Austin said the figures showed a 46 per cent increase in the number of people over 55 who were taking their own lives.

“The regional data is also alarming, with several counties recording rates of suicide well above the national average of 11.6 per 100,000 population,” he said.

Those included Limerick, which had the country’s highest rate of suicide, at 26.6 per 100,000 deaths. Cork city had a rate of 25.6 suicide deaths per 100,000, while Wexford had a rate of 21.2 and Mayo 19.9.

Though there was some good news in the figures for suicides among those aged between 15 and 24, which fell slightly in 2012, Austin said Ireland still had the fourth-highest suicide rate for that age group of any EU member state.

He also raised concerns about the number of deaths which were recorded as being of “undetermined” cause.

Those figures include cases where a suicide is the likely cause of death, but where a coroner cannot formally declare this, due to the presence of other factors such as a significant alcohol intake.

Separately, the CSO’s figures indicated that there was only one case in Ireland in 2012 where a woman died as a result of complications in pregnancy, childbirth or puerperium, the state closely following childbirth.

That is recorded as being a woman aged between 25 and 34, whose death was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Here are some numbers if you need to speak with someone:

• Samaritans 1850 60 90 900 or email jo@samaritans.org
• Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634
• Console 1800 201 890
• Aware 1890 303 302
• Pieta House 01 601 0000 or email mary@pieta.ie
• Childline 1800 66 66 66

Read: Parents had to console garda sent to the scene of their son’s suicide