Professor Jim Lucey:

The answer includes a number of complex things. The Deputy is right that one cannot put up barriers to care for people who need that care. The way to tackle the issue is to make a commitment to holistic care and seeing these problems as integral to each other at a human level. The policy document entitled A Vision for Change radically separates addiction services in a way that we had fundamental difficulties with at the time. Our service has not made that separation in the same way. We see the duality and holistic nature as being primary.

One can deliver accountability and being responsible by agreeing to integrate addiction and mental health in a much more meaningful way. One must start by agreeing that and we would argue that in the Irish context it makes no sense to separate these issues.