Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

At times, we all use the same terminology around here. Sometimes, that terminology is correct, like the term “trauma informed”. It is about the idea of integrated services, which we do not necessarily have. Almost everything works in silos. We all love talking about early interventions and how necessary they are, but they do not always happen. For the past while in the children’s committee, we have been dealing with the issue of child poverty. This also relates to some of the pieces that came up in the disability committee, of which I am a member. This issue is like a Venn diagram across those committees. If we could put in place the best-case scenario or system to protect and support families and, obviously, kids who fall into particular and sometimes dangerous scenarios, we would be a lot better off.

A couple of weeks ago here, someone straightforwardly said that if we were to really up our game when it comes to the resources we put into addiction services across the board and all the rest of it, in a perfect world, a situation could be brought about where far fewer of those resources would be needed into the future. I am not under any misapprehension that drugs are going anywhere, however.

Intergenerational trauma and poverty are absolutely exacerbated by the issue of drugs and everything else that happens at this point in time. The piece that I have identified and cannot get away from is the need to have decent screening in place. I refer to decent engagement with families so that these issues can be caught and supports put in place. As the witnesses know, however, those supports do not exist.

Beyond that, the services we need at a later stage are obviously a hell of a lot more complex. The conversation we are having here is almost the same as those I have had in other committees. We can talk about housing, poverty and all the rest of it, but we live in the world that we live in. What does the perfect system, which deals with both that early intervention piece and then addiction services beyond that, look like? Everyone would agree that it makes no sense that sometimes people's only choice of getting these services is when they get prosecuted and put through the court system and into jail. It has to be a lengthy enough sentence, too, or it will not happen.