Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 26 September 2024

Committee on Drugs Use

A Health-Led Approach: Discussion

9:30 am

Ms Caron McCaffrey:

It is a complex area and I appreciate that. We have a two-pronged approach of reducing supply and reducing demand. Reducing supply is a really important component of what we do. There is a very small number of people who are controlling the trafficking of drugs into our prisons and they devastate people's lives.

To me, a person has a great opportunity in a custodial setting to address his or her addiction, and if we can keep drugs out of the prison, we can create recovery communities, peer-led approaches and places where people can live where there are not drugs within the community. For me, that is the aim, but it has to be a two-pronged approach. As long as drugs are being trafficked into our prisons, it has an absolutely destabilising effect on every aspect of our custodial settings.