This article appeared in The Mayo News on Tuesday, February 27, 2024.

Regular readers of this column will remember my examination before Christmas of the spend on road safety initiatives, in light of the drastic increase in road traffic accident deaths, a trend that is sadly showing no signs of reversing with 184 lives lost in 2023, and 33 so far this year as I write.

The column also questioned the relatively tiny spend on drug services in Ireland, versus road safety, given the fact that the number of deaths was over twice as high. It is apparent that while all loss of life is tragic, some kinds of tragedy are harder to acknowledge than others.

Enter suicide. In 2022, 188 people died on our roads. In that same period, there were 412 reported suicides in Ireland. The actual number is likely to be much higher.