Ms Réidín Dunne:

Could I speak to a point made about the continuum of substance use that was made earlier? I too find myself in social work spaces all the time advocating for a non-binary view of what that looks like. Often, where we are is we speak about addiction full stop and addiction is chaos, whereas we do not have the ability within our systemic spaces to look at a family's function within that and how it is very possible, because we work with mothers every day, for a mother to provide good enough care to her child while using substances, and that is not said enough. In an ideal situation, of course, we would prefer that woman did not use substance but we do not live in an ideal world. However, the State's response to women who use substances is often binary and punitive in nature. To exemplify that point, of the 11 children in our children's centre three years ago, five of them were moved into care and no family reunification was planned because we know from our experience that when the child of a mother who is involved in substance use is removed into care, the chances of that child returning are limited and the barriers put in place in terms of what she is expected to do are unreasonable. I have been in social work spaces where social workers have requested the mother to be no longer on her methadone maintenance programme when that methadone maintenance programme is maintaining her stability. That very view shows a lack of understanding of and insight into the continuum of recovery. While we all accept that we are here to support people through their addiction, we have to accept that there is a continuum of recover. As Deputy Graves said, recovery is not about the absence or presence of drugs; it is a whole other function. There is lots to consider and we have to consider all of those things. As my colleague Mr. Broderick said, when we look at Hidden Harm only through the lens of addiction, we are ignoring systemic issues, such as poverty, mental health and systemic barriers that women face all the time.