Sir, – The estimates of the excess suicides that should be attributed to the recession contained in your editorial ("Tragic cost of lives lost due to recession", June 22nd) convey an air of accuracy and reliability that is spurious.
You cite a claim that “in absolute terms, there were 476 more male and 85 additional female suicide deaths in the five-year study period [due to the recession].”
This claim is based on a comparison of the actual suicide data for 2012 with those obtained from a hypothetical figure derived from an extrapolation of the decline in the suicide rate that was recorded between 2000 and 2007. The validity of the methodology underlying this approach can be questioned on many fronts. For example, is the hypothetical figure contingent on the economy having maintained its unsustainable boom-time growth rate after 2007?
Your readers might be surprised to learn that the suicide rate was actually slightly lower in 2012 than it had been in 2008. Even more striking is the fact that despite the soaring rate of youth unemployment, the suicide rate for males aged between 15 and 44 continued to fall steadily over this period, a reduction that was only partially offset by an increase in the rate for males aged 45 to 64. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN WALSH,
Emeritus Professor,
School of Economics,
University College Dublin.