Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I just want to mention the awareness and the education. I have a sister who is ten years older than me who is a psychiatrist. I remember when we were young at home her showing us brain scans of people with drug dependency. That fairly educated us. There is huge scope to inform younger people at a very early stage of the effects of drugs but also to inform them that these drugs are not manufactured in a controlled environment anywhere. They are produced in a portakabin out the back of somewhere. There is a danger that somebody will put the decimal point in the wrong place.

Regarding Suboxone, there are very few countries that have not licensed it. From the evidence I have read, it seems to be particularly useful to young addicts who have not entered a methadone programme. It has a two-pronged approach to dealing with dependency and overdose at the one stage. It is something we need to keep on the table.

With regard to Deputy O'Reilly's point about monitoring prescriptions, the prescription situation in Ireland is very unusual. The Chairman could write a prescription on the back of a piece of paper today and present it down the road. It is very difficult to track. Until we get to a situation in which we have the unique patient identifier and we can say, "That is Louise's number", and track it, with the way things are at the minute, it is very difficult to monitor all of that scientifically. My only concern is that when this legislation is enacted, the market will still be there. We may cut off one stream. Ninety-five mg of diazepam, one of the benzodiazepines, costs about €20 on prescription. Its street value is about €450. It is a lucrative business. Once we cut it off with this legislation, we are probably going to open up some other avenue because the people who are taking these drugs are not going to wake up in the morning and think they could get in trouble. They are going to go to the other guy. That is why we need to monitor constantly how this is working.