Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, and congratulate him on his appointment. I wish him success in his new role and responsibilities. It is a welcome decision of the Government to appoint a Minister of State dedicated to the task of addressing this need. It is only regrettable that nobody was in that position over the previous four years.

In my questions to the Minister of State, I wish to concentrate on the specifics concerning the earlier presentation by voices representing my own community and their experience in dealing with this matter. There is a big question mark over so-called legal highs. The real question is whether they are legal. Most certainly, they should not be legal.

We are discussing this question against the backdrop of two tragic deaths. As I said earlier, this is not an abstract issue. It has affected people whom I know personally. The friends who made presentations here this morning are dealing with these matters on a continuous basis. The community has been deeply affected by the almost epidemic presence and accessibility of these substances.

I note that the Minister of State met with the UK Minister with responsibility for policing, crime, criminal justice and victims, Mike Penning, during the British-Irish Council summit meeting last month. There is concern in my community as to the effectiveness and fitness for purpose of existing legislation here. Yet we note that the British legislation, the Psychoactive Substances Bill, which is going through Parliament but has not yet been enacted, is modelled on the Irish experience. That is a fact; it is not just the opinion of the witnesses we heard earlier, Mr. Packie Kelly and Mr. Tim Murphy. I can advise the Minister of State that I have personally met senior representatives of An Garda Síochána in the Cavan-Monaghan division who tell me that the existing legislation is inadequate to allow them to address the growing scourge of packs of dangerous substances. That is the view of senior members of An Garda Síochána, which must be factored in. I would be concerned, if any other jurisdiction were modelling legislation on what we currently have, if the reality is that our legislation is deficient and incapable of properly allowing the policing service in this State to deal with the problem. I sincerely ask the Minister of State to ensure that a serious review of this situation is undertaken. In his closing remarks, he spoke of bringing forward another Bill by the end of this year to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act. The 2010 Bill effectively contributed to the closure of head shops across the country. That legislation listed some 200 banned substances, and the methodology is to continue to proscribe and add to the list over the intervening period. We must face the fact, however, that we simply cannot keep up.

As Deputy Stanton, the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, put on record here this morning, new substances are being created at a rate of two per week and people who have the chemistry know-how are working continuously to create these substances. We simply will not be able to deal effectively with this situation if we are always trying to catch up. We will never catch up. We need to find a way of getting in front of all of this with some form of blanket legislation that provides that substances are illegal until they are determined to be legal, acceptable and having a valid purpose. That would allow the Garda - and any other police service, where comparable legislation came into effect - to deal with the issue as it must. I ask the witnesses to expand on what they hope the amended legislation will achieve by the year end.

I did not realise the passage of time. If I am allowed to reflect on one last point, the Minister of State in his contribution said that waiting times, particularly outside Dublin, had been considerably reduced. We placed some attention on this issue earlier this morning, but some of the difficulties concern the fact that people who are users of these substances and who may have underlying mental health issues are not able to access mental health services while they are users. They can only be assessed and assisted when they are absolutely "clean", which is the word used, and no longer using these psychoactive substances. Those qualified to make the assessment are then able to deal with them as standalones in their own right. There is an absolute need to look at this issue, because the required pathways to secure the help that is badly needed are not there.

This is a life-or-death situation which is, in real terms, currently affecting the county of Monaghan in a serious way, but I believe it is also the experience of communities right across the country. It may not take the format of those little packs to which the Minister of State has now been introduced, but if it has not, I can tell the Minister of State with confidence, it is only a matter of time.