Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A lot of what I wanted to say has already been said. We have always had an issue with alcohol and we have never been serious around it. Cocaine crosses every strata but obviously it is the disadvantaged communities that suffer the most. I get the set-up has changed. However, the root cause still is poverty and multigenerational trauma. It is also a case of seeing the bad example. I mean when people know they are not necessarily going to be a Rhode scholar or whatever yet see someone operate as a dealer for ten or 15 years with no consequences. That is the perception and the issue. Taking into account family supports, what does a national drugs strategy look like?

On the Family Addiction Support Network, it not only provides supports. Again, there are people who are still afraid to go to the guards, particularly when they are dealing with drug debt intimidation and whatever. I have sent a number of people but it is an outfit that almost closed a number of times. We are not serious about having a conversation about addiction but we are also not serious about resourcing what needs to happen and putting a proper framework in place.

I will also say it like Mr. Slattery. I have gone to the guards multiple times about instances of drug debt intimidation. In terms of getting people over the fear factor, in some cases people have spit up and have not paid. Again, there are people who have paid once and on that basis somebody lets the dealer run up a tab again without realising the dealer was able to get a credit union loan or cash in a pension or something which they cannot do the next time, and then we have all seen places that have been burned out. The difference is that when a person goes to the guards is that at least one is putting somebody in highlights, not even in relation to drug dealing but in relation to violence, which I think is absolutely necessary but I would be afraid of my life that we are not going to have the framework that we need because I do not think we are addressing the current needs and requirements.