Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

When I hear the Oireachtas is not going to have any role in reviewing this it rings alarm bells, because we all know how little debate there has been here and how little discussion there has been about addiction, whether it is drugs, alcohol or gambling. It is good that we are having this particular discussion today. I do not remember too many debates. There have been periods since I have been here that we did not have a Minister with specific responsibility for the drugs strategy, and there was a long gap before Senator Ó Ríordáin took up the mantle in the last Dáil. Despite the Minister of State saying that she will have the power to suspend the licence, I have a fear that unless we have somebody who is particularly interested and dedicated to this area, someone who understands the issues, we could have a situation where any unintended consequences might go on for much longer than they would. To me that would be detrimental to the work of the injecting centres.

One thing I would love to see beside every injecting centre - I hope there will be more than one if the need is there - is a recovery café. Great work is being undertaken by the recovery academy, and they are not on the agenda at all. We have to show the examples and let it be visible that people are in recovery and that there are opportunities for people to go into recovery and to stay in recovery. In other countries they have recovery business centres and recovery cafés. That would be very good. It is not a "Big Brother is watching" type thing. This is to make it better, and other people in the House, whoever they may be, at other stages who have an interest in this and who are concerned about it should have a continuous input.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh mentioned the methadone clinics. There were unintended consequences and they are still going on. People are spending far too long on methadone and they are not having the opportunity to reduce their use or to come off methadone completely. We still have a lack of dignity for people who are visibly queueing up for methadone on the streets. I would hate to see something like that happening at the injection centres. I am disappointed that we are not considering this more.

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