Fine Gael has called for the immediate implementation of a national suicide prevention strategy and has accused the Government of a lack of leadership in tackling the problem.
Speaking at the start of a suicide awareness campaign by Young Fine Gael, party leader Enda Kenny said: "It is seven years since the National Taskforce on Suicide made their report, yet most of their 86 recommendations are unimplemented.
"In fact, since the taskforce made their recommendations, 2,000 people have died by suicide."
The Young Fine Gael campaign is calling for a national advertising campaign aimed at detecting depression and suicide, a national support service, training for teachers and investment in the mental health sector.
National figures indicate that 444 people in Ireland died by suicide in 2003, nearly half of them aged under 35. More than 10,000 people attempt suicide each year.
Suicide is the greatest killer among people aged between 15 and 34, accounting for one-quarter of all deaths in this age group.
According to the Fine Gael campaign, 1,012 people in this age group killed themselves in the five-year period to the end of 2003.
One-quarter of those who committed suicide had been in contact with their doctor in the week before taking their lives, while one in three had been in psychiatric care within three months beforehand.
Mr Kenny denied that the campaign was in poor taste, or that the party was making political capital from the issue.
He said it was "part of the removal of the stigma" surrounding suicide.
"This is not something party-political. It is something about ourselves, about us as a people, and about the kind of country we want to live in.
"I think central to that is the removal of the stigma surrounding the whole business of suicide."
Yesterday a spokesman for the Department of Health rejected suggestions that there was little action on suicide.
In a statement, the department said that the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, was "fully committed to the intensification of suicide prevention measures" and that the national strategy on suicide prevention would be completed and published by the end of the year.
"Since the publication of the Report of the National Task Force on Suicide in 1998 there has been a positive and committed response from the statutory and voluntary sectors towards finding ways of tackling the problem of suicide," the statement said.
The department said that more than €17.5 million had been made available towards suicide prevention and research since 1998.