SUICIDES last year caused as many deaths as road traffic accidents, according to figures from Central Statistics Office.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that ringing Dublin Samaritans sometimes get an engaged signal because the organisation has too few volunteers.
The number of suicides has, for some years, been close to rivalling road death statistics.
In 1993, road accidents accounted for 391 deaths and suicide for 357. In the following year, road deaths fell considerably to 363 but deaths by suicide were virtually unchanged at 353. Last year, both were up sharply to 383.
The Cork psychiatrist Dr Michael J. Kelleher, author of Suicide and the Irish, has argued that the under estimation in Irish suicide figures is now negligible.
The shortage of volunteers in the Samaritans is highlighted by Ms Mary Bryans, director of the Dublin branch. In her report for 1995, she writes that "while our calls increase year by year, our volunteer numbers remain nearly constant".
Some Dublin calls are automatically rerouted to quieter branches "but often there are not enough volunteers for all our lines and the caller hears an engaged signal. That may easily be enough to discourage some people from trying again.
Last year, the Dublin branch received 64,000 telephone calls, 4,400 visits and 200 letters. It also paid 900 visits to prisoners.
"We think the reason we don't get more volunteers is that people consider the Samaritans must be special or even saintly people, and that they would not be able to cope", writes Ms Bryans. "Almost the reverse is true. It is our ordinariness that allows and encourages callers to share their problems with us."