Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their presentations. I missed a little bit of the earlier presentation, and I apologise for that.

It is very welcome that the delegates have appeared today to present the facts and figures on the increase in the incidence of HIV infection over recent years and the further increase this year, for which we do not have the final figures. This is mirrored by an increase generally in sexually transmitted diseases throughout the country. It seems this is as a result of a decrease in awareness of the problems associated with sexually transmitted disease, concomitant with an increase in the effectiveness of medication. The problem has gone off the radar to a degree.

It is very welcome that there have been improvements in medical expertise and the quality of the drugs available, but if the result is that people are less concerned with protection, that could be a major contributor to the situation.

It is certainly true that there is not the stigma there was in the past, but there is still a stigma. In the late 1980s HIV and AIDS were associated with homosexuals and prisoners because of intravenous drug use. In one terrible situation the prison authorities asked the prison population of Mountjoy to volunteer for testing and those who were found to be HIV-positive were very quickly told to pack their bags. Everything was put into black bin bags, the prison officers donned space suits and they were carted off in trucks to the Curragh prison. At that stage the stigma was such that being HIV-positive was seen as a death sentence and they had to be immediately separated from everybody else. That form of panic and stigma is gone but nevertheless there is still a serious community stigma. Perhaps, as one of the witnesses suggested, community-based testing could take place rapidly, with results given immediately, and it would not be specific to any group in society. That would lift the stigma, and with proper awareness and highlighting of the issue we could make progress, particularly, as the witnesses have pointed out, when so much sexual transmission is through people who are unaware of being HIV-positive. They may not belong to any of the categories we have talked about.

The Minister of State with responsibility for the national drugs strategy, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, has recently raised the question of providing medically supervised injecting centres. That would stop the covert street injecting in telephone kiosks and dark laneways and sharing of needles, which is very dangerous from every point of view and causes anti-social problems. There seems to be a lot of intravenous drug activity with amphetamines and snow blow, a party drug, without concern and care. This is extending to the vulnerable, such as the homeless population, and needs to be considered. It is a new dimension to the problem. It is fantastic that the witnesses are highlighting the issues. They are the people to do it. They have brought it to our attention and it is very important that we find forums to do that, because unless there are platforms for highlighting the issues too little attention will be paid to them.

I have always thought that we need a special task force to respond to the changing nature of drug abuse. We still have not come to terms with prescription drugs. There are constantly changing chemical compounds and we do not have the mechanism, means, supports or resources to deal with them. We need a special task force of experts in the medical scene and elsewhere that will be able to respond as they come on the scene, before they get a firm foothold, rather than a couple of years later trying to get to grips with a problem that could have been dealt with earlier.