Professor Catherine Comiskey:

I will also go back to the workforce. At undergraduate nursing and midwifery education, they get no education on addiction. I was amazed when I joined the school. They still do not. They get one or two lectures in mental health and these nurses are going into emergency, chronic, elderly and children's units and they get no education on addiction, which is everywhere. If you are a community nurse giving the injection and that mother comes in, the nurse has no education on addiction. We really need to provide more education and room for that. It is not prioritised in this country. It is not prioritised in the professions. If we educate people and our staff across those services that will also reduce stigma. I do my bit that I can, in that I have developed a course in Trinity but it is what we call an elective; you do not have to do it. It is full every year, however, and the nurses love it. They change their attitudes. We start discussing these difficult topics. These are only young girls and boys going into nursing aged between 18 and 20. They are out in clinical practice in first year, and they have absolutely no training. They are coming with some attitudes and I am addressing those attitudes.

In terms of stigma, we have heard of what we called the adverse childhood experiences that people have. There are also adverse community experiences. If a community is stigmatised, you do not have to be using drugs, but you are known as the person who comes from the community that uses the drugs. That is why I am looking for this committee to be progressive. The research is there. It reduces stigma and improves people's lives.