Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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One of our recommendations, as a committee, is that a national structure is put in place so all of the organisations could plug into it and find a common platform. As we have said, and as the Chairman has said, on numerous occasions, addiction has a devastating effect on family members. Last Friday, I met the family member of a person who had passed away due to addiction. I was told that at one stage that person went on holiday with their children, who literally spent two weeks just pacing up and down the floor of the apartment. It was a complete waste of a holiday and the memory of it had a terrible effect on the children as they grew up because they remembered that their only family holiday had literally been dominated by alcohol.

The system notes and ticks the box when it comes to families but all of the focus, which I can understand, is on the person with the addiction problem to get him or her on to recovery. However, there is another side and one cannot just tick the box.