Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Yes, you did. I thank everybody for coming in. I really enjoyed everybody's contributions, which have been very informative. These meetings are very good for the committee in respect of when we go forward with any proposed legislation. They have been very informative.

For the sake of full disclosure, I worked with Denis in front-line addiction services for several years. We were reminiscing about that time. It was good that he mentioned statistics and things like that. It is always good to be mindful and to remember there are people behind the statistics. We can get lost in focusing on the number of people who have died from overdoses and the total number of people presenting for opioid treatment. Behind each of those statistics, however, is a person with hopes, dreams, aspirations and a family, and addiction has got in their way. I must mention this point.

One of the things mentioned by the IPU representatives was the postcode lottery of care and the inequality of access for patients with addiction issues for harm reduction. Is the funding the IPU receives now adequate? What would it look like if we were to move to a different model like harm reduction or decriminalisation? What would be needed?