Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests. I particularly welcome Ms Kelleher back. It is good to see her. I commend her on the work she is constantly doing in this area. One of the areas I was going to concentrate on was that of crime and intimidation and its effect on families but, thankfully, Deputy Ward did it for me.

I also focus on the effects of this that families suffer. On a number of occasions I have been to funerals of people who died from addiction problems and the family, apart from the grief at all, have been devastated for years prior to the death. That is something that has not been focused upon at all by any policy. On the way up on the train this morning I read about the Family Addiction Support Network and the work it does is of great importance. Are there are family support structures in other parts of the country as opposed to the east or north east? Is there the potential for this to be a national response and that there might be a co-ordinated policy between various groups? Is the network just focusing on that geographical area or is there a potential to make this into a national organisation?