Irish society is telling its young people they must sink or swim, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin warned tonight.
In his presidential address to the Dublin and Glendalough Diocesan Synod Dr John Neill said young adults were being judged on a points system piling stress and pressure on everyday life.
Addressing delegates in Taney Parish Centre, Dundrum, the Archbishop warned that society was obsessed with the desire to succeed. "At the same time as a society, we have stopped saying to our young citizens `go away', but because we now have something for them to do in their own land, we say instead `sink or swim' even if we never put it in so many words," he said.
"But our 'points' system for example sends that message loud and clear, with its failure to address the gifts and possibilities of the young person as an individual."
The Archbishop highlighted the alarming increase in suicide, particularly among youngsters. He also noted the need for society as a whole to overcome the taboo of mental illness.
"Young adults are a very high risk group in today's Ireland," he said. "These are the people who have grown up during these years of accelerating change. They are not finding it easy.
"We may often urge them to live and behave in a responsible fashion, but in doing so, we are often failing to listen, and worse still failing to take responsibility for the environment in which they are living out their lives." Dr Neill noted the 'frightening' level of suicides among young people.
He noted there had been a 26 per cent increase in suicides in the last 10 years, three times the United Kingdom rate of increase. The Archbishop also said 300,000 Irish people of all age groups suffered from depression including a significant number of young adults.
He told the Church of Ireland synod that the Celtic Tiger had created plenty of wealth, but driven a wedge through society at the same time. "The culture of materialism accompanying the Celtic Tiger boom reached a height toward the end of the nineties here in the Republic, and at the very same time our youth suicide figures rose," he said.
"There is a void. Those experiencing it no longer turn easily to family or to Church. "The materialistic world, the world where values have gone all awry, the world where all certainties have collapsed, and where life changes so fast that security of any kind is hard to find, is a very difficult place in which to grow up."
Dr Neill said the loosening of church and family ties reflected the wider social disintegration which left youngsters adrift and prone to drug and alcohol abuse. "What I am saying is that these are symptoms as well as causes of a great deal of suffering, and indeed a symptom of something that we have to address," he said.