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

I completely agree with the point about someone being condemned to a life on methadone. It is an umbrella term that suggests dirty, bad people. I have seen people for years that have functioning lives who are down to 10 ml to 15 ml of methadone maintenance. One could probably argue that they might not need it at all but it is a crutch and support. I totally agree there is no reason to channel people and stigmatise them by allocating them to a particular GP in a particular area where perhaps they may meet people from their past or, statistically, they are more likely to meet somebody involved in that habit. It is really important people do not feel they are stigmatised or that they are different. It is almost as if there is nearly no acknowledgement that they have come so far from the needle in their arm to the 10 ml of methadone and that they are in the same category. I do not say that the person using the needle in the arm is in a different category but I fully agree that we must move away from calling people addicts and saying they have to go down a certain channel, and if they are not, they go down a different channel. We must deal with addiction in the same way as we deal with hypothyroidism or whatever else one might have. It is due to ignorance.

That said, we have come a long way. We came a long way in this committee with the injection centres and with people's views on housing. With the help of the Department, we can remove some of the stigma from people. That is very important for recovery, that for a person to be on methadone is not considered dirty. Methadone is cheap and clean.