Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am nearly finished; my last question is coming up. I insist on having parity will all my peers, which can be difficult from time to time.

The Chairman might not remember I was a member of the first ministerial drugs task force a long time ago. We seem to have drifted away from the original purpose of the exercise. At that time methadone was a means to an end. Now it seems to be an end in itself which is not what the task force at the time was interested in. Do we have a focus on the way that we should deal with the drugs issue and drug abuse with a view to providing the means whereby the patient can come off drugs?

They should be enabled to get onto programmes that will get them off drugs and offer them an incentive for doing so, both for the betterment of their own health and that of their families and the community in general.