Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I have engaged very actively with Tony Duffin and Mark Kennedy in recent months, both of whom I have met with my team. I thank them for talking me through this but also for giving me a live experience of the services they provide and that interface with the people who use their services. I am also conscious of the broader societal picture around their service provision and all of the drug litter and paraphernalia. This is part of providing a future opportunity to users, who need the same care, intervention and multifaceted package of measures in their own lives. However, it is important they get that care.

Within my party, I have tried to change our position or to develop a position on this as part of our submission on the national drugs strategy. We support the legislation. It is important to give people an opportunity and to have evidence-based harm reduction move towards treatment, rehabilitation and recovery. That cannot be done if we allow all the different drug users to operate very visibly on our streets, without getting the proper and substantive care they deserve, like everyone else.

Many of my questions have been touched on by Deputy O'Brien and Senator Ruane.

I agree with Professor Bury that the number of people on methadone is quite high. That number has remained stagnant. What was a welcome and progressive measure at the time has become an end in itself. When one talks to people who are in recovery, one of their criticisms is that the transitional piece is minimal or non-existent for many users. They have the cycle of dependence, where we are not providing a future, and it becomes a permanent harm reduction piece for people who want to recover. With regard to Senator Ruane's comments, what can we do to build the transitional piece, to incentivise GPs to take the extra step and to encourage the other care providers to move from the harm reduction model to treatment, intervention and recovery? The number of GPs who are willing to provide the service is an issue. There are counties in Ireland where GPs are wholeheartedly refusing to prescribe methadone or to treat users, which, I believe, breaches the practitioners' entry requirement into the medical profession; namely, that it does not matter who comes through the door, it is important to care for and to treat everybody in the community.

I want to ask about Suboxone. I have been trying to pursue this with the Minister. We have got a vague commitment on its use being legislated for, potentially in future legislative measures. We all know that is not an immediate response. I know that Tony O'Brien has corresponded with Senator Ó Ríordáin about this. I echo the comments made by other members in respect of Senator Ó Ríordáin. As Minister of State, he achieved a lot towards changing the discussion on the subject and that has helped this committee and the Oireachtas to try to address the measures positively. What are Professor Bury's views on Suboxone and what does he consider to be the legislative delay regarding its use? It is important - and all the witnesses have referred to it - that this is one part of the jigsaw. It will, however, become an end in itself if we do not talk about everything else relating to drug treatment and intervention. From what I have seen in this Parliament in the past couple of months, the problem with politics is that sometimes it requires a blinkered focus in order to get something of this nature over the line. However, we also need to broaden the discussion on the other important care mechanisms and packages. This is in order to give people who are vulnerable and who have experienced significant difficulties in their lives a chance. While that includes our streets and communities, it also includes prisons. Hopefully we can engage with penal reform more actively in this Dáil or in future Dáileanna. I thank the witnesses for being here and I look forward to working with them all.