Ms Caroline O’Reilly:

I thank the Chair and members of the committee for inviting me here today. I am an addiction counsellor and psychotherapist, and for 18 years I have worked with individuals and families affected by addiction. This work has included my work with Travellers at Exchange House Ireland.

Before I begin, I want to share the words of a Traveller woman I met recently in the Dóchas Centre following the suicide of her friend, who drowned in the River Liffey. Both had been living on the streets of Dublin, using crack cocaine and supporting each other to survive. Her words capture the deteriorating situation in our city:

We were sitting there at the river talking about the state of our lives. Drugs ... How did we end up like this? All our kids are in care, not a family member even to take us in and give us a bed or a bit of food. What have we got? Jail, jail, jail ... The system is ... [broken]. I ring the freephone ... they won’t give me a bed because I’m on ... [another council] list. I’m just on the streets of Dublin, being robbed, nearly raped, I woke up with three fellas over me ... We choose the drugs to block out the pain and cold but that’s not the life to live. I went away for less than ten minutes to get some drugs, walked back and there she is – her body floating in the Liffey ... I thought about going in after her.

This is not just one woman’s story. It shows how trauma and exclusion, left unaddressed, pass from one generation to the next and fuel addiction in our communities.

Intergenerational trauma occurs when unresolved harm from poverty, violence, abuse or exclusion is carried forward through parenting and family dynamics, and even biologically through stress responses. Children raised in homes marked by addiction, violence or neglect are more likely to struggle with mental health issues and addiction as adults. They repeat patterns not by choice but because trauma was never addressed and dysfunction became normalised. Trauma is therefore not only a personal issue; it becomes a social and cultural one, repeating itself silently unless we intervene.

On the link with addiction, trauma is one of the strongest predictors of substance misuse.

The Adverse Childhood Experiences study shows that people with four or more childhood traumas are far more likely to misuse alcohol or drugs and are at higher risk of depression and suicide. In my own practice I have seen families where three generations are caught in the same cycle: a grandparent institutionalised, a parent with untreated trauma turning to substances and children now entering care. Without intervention, the cycle simply repeats. The All Ireland Traveller Health study found that Traveller men live 15 years less than settled men, while Traveller women live 11 years less; and that suicide rates among Travellers are six times higher, with one in ten Traveller deaths linked to suicide. Almost 40% of Travellers report poor mental health, which is four times the rate among the general population. This is driven by discrimination, exclusion, poor housing and poverty. These are not statistics of individual failure; they are evidence of collective trauma carried across generations. In regard to the human and social cost, when trauma and addiction go untreated we see rising prison populations, children entering State care, homelessness, mental health crises and increased hospital admissions. The State spends enormously on prisons and crisis responses yet far less on prevention. Investing in community-based health-led programmes would save money and spare families the devastating costs of lost potential, broken homes and preventable deaths.

In terms of what needs to change, as we cannot break the cycle with piecemeal responses, addiction services must be trauma-centred. Front-line staff see the realities every day yet their insights are too often lost in bureaucracy. We need direct conversations between front-line practitioners and policymakers. With that in mind I urge the committee to consider more residential treatment and detox places where beds must be available when people are ready, and not months later, and recovery programmes in prisons and communities. Prisons should be a gateway to change, with detox counselling and education provided and community-based alternatives prioritised. Housing solutions should support sobriety. In that context, safe recovery housing and step-down accommodation are essential. Relapse is almost guaranteed if people leave treatment and go into homelessness or prison. Training is required for social workers and front-line staff. Skills in trauma and addiction improve decisions, reduce stigma and strengthen families. This requires investment in the workforce through training, regulation and recognition of addiction professionals. Quality trauma-informed care is needed. Staff across addiction, mental health and justice must be trained to ask "what happened to you?" rather than "what is wrong with you?". This means expanding evidence-based therapies already piloted in Ireland such as Seeking Safety, coping skills for addiction recovery, trauma-focused CBT and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing, EMDR. Early intervention for children, school-based supports, counselling and parenting programmes like Parenting Under Pressure reduce the risk of repeating the cycle.

Intergenerational trauma does not have to continue. With timely treatment, recovery supports and trauma-informed services shaped by front-line knowledge and the voices of marginalised communities, we can break the cycle. The choice is ours to keep managing crisis or to invest in real recovery.