Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy raises a very good point, which was precisely the motivation for the consultation process and the intended introduction of these amended regulations. The Deputy is absolutely right; this is an increasing problem. There is poly-drug use, such as combinations of benzodiazepines with methadone or alcohol. It is a major new challenge in this sector and something with which we are only beginning to get a grip. We understood the drugs problem in Dublin to be the heroin problem, but it has a different dimension now and the Deputy has touched on that in large part. Many of the recommendations to which the Deputy has referred are actually in the draft regulations that I proposed and hope to introduce next year. I do not have time to go through them right now, but they include issues such as unauthorised possession of benzodiazepines, controls on the licences for importing and exporting them, and stricter prescribing and dispensing rules. There is a list of recommendations, all of which I hope to include in these regulations.

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