Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

4 o’clock

I am grateful for the opportunity to make a brief contribution today on this important legislation, the Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2016, which will amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 by adding new substances to the controlled list, make provision for a number of related matters such as the revocation of some statutory instruments, the transferring of functions on granting licences to the Health Products Regulatory Authority from the Minister for Health and adding the definitions of "registered nurse" and "registered midwife" to those allowed to administer medical prescriptions.

The speedy progression of the Bill through the Houses is part of the Government's attempt to take some action following the resurgence of gangland crime on the streets of Dublin, on which we had a few debates since the general election. The Bill was originally scheduled for the autumn term and was also intended to provide for the establishment of supervised injection centres, but that is no longer the case, which is regrettable. I understand the centres will be provided for in a subsequent Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill later in the term. The Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2016 is expected by the Government to aid An Garda Síochána in its law enforcement duties regarding the possession of drugs and illicit substances. The Minister of State has indicated that the Garda specifically requested those powers as part of the fight against gangland activity. I accept the sincere arguments and points of view that have been expressed by colleagues on decriminalisation. The suggestions in that regard are worthy of very deep thought and the strongest consideration of this House at the next Stage of the Bill.

Section 6, Parts 1 and 2, sets out the Schedule listing substances to be added to Paragraph 1A and 1B of the Schedule to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977. The types of substances to be added include Z drugs, Clockwork Orange and other substances which have been identified as dangerous under the EU Council Decision 2005/387/JHA. Some of the listed substances such as zopiclone may be in the possession of legitimate users with a prescription and such regulations will be required to allow such possession.

Given that there was another shooting in broad daylight last week we can agree that tackling gangland activity and crime is a priority for the Government and the law enforcement agencies. I recently received a reply to a parliamentary question I raised regarding An Garda Síochána's Operation Thistle, which was set up in direct response to the escalation in gang violence in Dublin earlier this year. It commenced on 19 February 2016 and as of the end of May 2016, €1,794,100 worth of drugs had been seized, 12 persons were arrested on suspicion "relating to the sale and supply of drugs, forged documents and breach of bail conditions" and "9 persons have been charged with 40 separate offences".

The Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, represents a Dublin constituency, as I do, and she is aware of the horrendous impact of the godfathers of drug-fuelled crime on communities and the necessity to go after them and to disrupt and end their business, and to ensure that they will be brought to account for what they have done to our city and the country. It is regrettable that the Minister of State's colleague, the Minister for Justice and Equality, has been slow to liaise with our EU colleagues in countries such as Spain and Holland and to utilise the European arrest warrant and work with Europol in order to ensure that, literally, the long arm of the State can reach the alleged perpetrators of those incredible and outrageous assassinations on the streets of the city. I again urge the Minister of State to be prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to progress the situation and to ensure that each and every one of the criminals who committed those horrendous crimes are brought to account, especially the directors of the criminality.

While I welcome aspects of the intention of the Bill and certain actions being taken by the Government in an attempt to support An Garda Síochána, the Bill needs to be more than just a knee-jerk reaction that will not make any real impact on the growing terror on the streets carried out by the gangs who have no regard for anyone's life. Some colleagues have been critical of the Bill. It is not surprising that we have seen a resurgence in such crimes given the cutbacks of the austerity years. The negative impacts of the cutbacks are now being felt most acutely by communities in constituencies such as mine and that of the Minister of State, that are among the most deprived and where people have the lowest income.

In May 2015, I asked the then Minister of State with responsibility for drugs, now Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, for information on the cuts in funding to local drugs and alcohol task forces and the regional drugs and alcohol task forces from 2011 to 2015. They are bodies the Minister of State and I have strongly supported over the years. Local drugs task force funding across Dublin reduced from €20.38 million in 2011 to €18.947 million in 2015 and the percentage reduction in 2011 was 2.51%, another 1.86% in 2012, 3.52% in 2013 and 1.82% in 2014. As the Minister of State is aware from her experience in her constituency, we just cannot afford those kind of cuts given the number of positive projects that needed additional funding rather than having to constantly cope with reduced resources. Regional task force funding reduced from just under €10 million in 2011 down to well under €9 million in 2015.

At the end of December 2015, I also requested information from the Minister for Health on the number of persons who availed of public addiction services. The national drug treatment reporting system, NDTRS, data available at the time for 2014 showed that approximately "16,500 cases entered drug or alcohol treatment". Of those, 4.1% were categorised as having received detoxification and a further 1.4% benzodiazepine detoxification. A total of 25% of all cases were treated in inpatient facilities.

Figures provided in the reply to the parliamentary question also stated that at the end of June 2015, "there were 249 people nationally on a waiting list in thirty eight HSE Clinics with a mean waiting time of 1.2 months". That is a considerable waiting time for people who are trying to get assistance with detoxification.

In the previous two Dáileanna we engaged in battles to try to increase the number of beds for that purpose. On 23 June 2016, I received a reply to a parliamentary question I asked about the number of inpatient detox beds available. The HSE reply stated that the number of beds available, including private provision are "787 residential beds, comprising 23 inpatient unit detoxification beds, 117 community-based residential detoxification beds, 4 adolescent residential detoxification beds, 625 residential rehabilitation beds and 18 adolescent residential rehabilitation beds". The reply also stated, "the HSE is submitting a business case for additional treatment episodes in the estimates process for 2017". That will be the challenge for the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, and her colleagues when the final shape of the budget is decided in late August and early September. Given the tens of thousands accessing treatment according to the NDTRS there is a clear need for extra resources.

Other colleagues referred to the amendments submitted by Senators Lynn Ruane and Aodhán Ó Ríordáin to the Bill when it was before the Seanad recently providing for non-prosecution for possession for personal use. The context is that the Government wishes to bring to an end the criminal activity of major drug dealers. The newly-appointed Minister of State with responsibility for equality, migration and integration, Deputy David Stanton, has also called for the decriminalisation of drugs and advocated that we would follow Portugal's system of non-prosecution for small amounts of drugs in possession for personal use. I saw the Minister of State recently on a "Prime Time" programme. He has been in the Dáil as long as I have and he is one of the most thoughtful and hard-working Members, and finally he has been appointed as Minister of State. When he was Chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Defence an intensive study was carried out of the situation in Portugal. The committee visited Portugal and looked at the impact of the changes introduced there. They found that instead of tying up the courts service in Portugal, persons are instead directed to dissuasion centres to support them to discontinue their drug use. Senator Ruane also recently criticised the Bill as "retrograde and regressive" and stated that it does not target the high-level dealers.

The Senator's progressive amendments were defeated, but I would hope to see the Minister of State with responsibility for communities and the national drugs strategy consider a similar amendment going forward based on the work of the committee chaired by Deputy Stanton in the Thirty-first Dáil. I would like to see whether the Minister of State and Deputy Stanton could bring to the House the data and facts of how the Portuguese situation has developed. We have read a lot about the election of the previous President in Uruguay. It was part of his portfolio to try to reduce serious criminality in Montevideo and in that country's social life. There are also interesting developments in some of the American states, such as Colorado and Washington. There are data coming forward around young people and drugs in all those jurisdictions. They seem to be very positive data about fewer young people being affected, for example, in the state of Colorado. All that deserves urgent study and consideration by the Government.

I note that the number of gardaí attached to the divisional drugs unit in the Dublin metropolitan region was 113 in 2013, 106 in 2014 and 115 in 2015. The Coolock district, in my own constituency, alone seized drugs valued at more than €3 million in 2014. Statistics from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, on the number of controlled drug offences in which the suspected offenders are on bail show a significant jump in the number of offences year on year from 2003 to 2008. In 2009, the number started to reduce to 2,353. In 2010, it was lower still at 2,154 and it was down to 1,565 by 2013. However, the increased trend has returned, with the number of recorded controlled drug offences in which the suspected offender was on bail standing at 1,883 in 2014 and 1,940 in 2015. It shows that the so-called war on drugs is far from over and that the prevalence of drugs in prisons must also be addressed. It shows the need for significant new thinking and new responses to try to end this scourge on communities.

At the recent launch at the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice of its report entitled Developing Inside: Transforming Prison for Young Adults, Fr. Peter McVerry, the long-standing and deeply respected advocate for marginalised groups, spoke on the subject of drugs in prison. Fr. McVerry said that it is becoming more evident that heroin is the older prisoner's drug of choice and that the misuse of tablets has become much more popular. This, of course, is having a considerable impact on the management of prisoners misusing this type of drug as they are much more volatile, aggressive and unpredictable than the previous experience of prisoners who misused opiates and displayed more, as it were, co-operative behaviours. I welcome the Irish Prison Service's implementation of incentivised regimes and integrated sentence management in which those who become drug free in prison and display positive behaviour are moved to enhanced regimes. However, this issue again goes back to the resources we have to address this problem, as Mountjoy Prison has just nine places on the drug-free programme in its medical unit.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, EMCDDA, noted that in Ireland in 2014, of the 9,523 persons who accessed treatment, 50% did so for opiate addiction, 28% for cannabis and 9% for cocaine. The average age of those entering treatment was 30 years. Males made up 73% of the clients and just 27% were females. Europol also recently published its EU drugs market report for 2016 which found that Irish teenagers and young adults are the biggest users of illegal psychoactive drugs in the EU. The Minister of State probably saw that report as well. Ireland had a 9% level of use among the age group of 15 to 24 year olds who took part in the survey. That is a very worrying statistic. France and Spain, for example, both had 8% and Slovenia had 7%.

I welcome the efforts which have taken place so far to try to address increased gangland activity. We must insist that that outrageous criminal behaviour is ended in order that the streets of our capital are safe for residents and visitors. Serious action will have to be taken to target the high level dealers who are wreaking havoc on our streets and communities with no regard for life. Most important, a lesson must be learnt from the imposition of the austerity cuts that there are repercussions from such decisions and the longer-term cost can far outweigh the initial Exchequer savings at the time.

It is interesting that yesterday the four nations that are still in the UK were considering the impact of mistaken policy by officials in the very serious matter of the Iraq war. The concern was that there was not accountability. It is likewise for what happened to our country from 2006 to 2009 in both the regime that existed up to 2009, which led our country into an economic crash, and the subsequent very vicious austerity, which was implemented by Governments in the previous two Dáileanna. Again, there should be an accounting for that. We have seen the impact on the streets and in communities. It is a regression from the progress we were making initially. Much of that progress was in this area and in the subject matter of this Bill and was made by valiant community leaders, as we know, in the drugs task force and in all the community centres around our city and in other cities throughout the country.

See this speech in context