Mr. Brendan Minish:

I just wanted to comment on something we heard throughout today and remind us why we are here. We are here because the rate of drug deaths in Ireland is very high. We are three times the EU average. We are the fourth worst in Europe for drug deaths. If the policy is working, then goodness me, what else is going wrong? We need to do better. We are not serving these people. Many people, obviously, who are getting into treatment are having reasonable outcomes. However, there are many people who are getting missed, falling through the cracks and are dying from overdoses. The problem here is, of course, in part, contaminated supply and all that goes with it in the black market. It is premature to assume that our policy as is is working; it is not.