Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is nice to have the opportunity to speak about this issue again with the Minister of State, but I am disappointed there has been no movement regarding drug treatment services or the setting up of a proper drug treatment centre in Kildare. Given Kildare has a population of 220,000 - 120,000 in north Kildare and approximately 90,000 in south Kildare - it is not good enough or acceptable that these resources are not in place. This has been an ongoing issue that I have raised in the Chamber with the Minister of State for over a year. I do not like having to reintroduce it into the House but I must try to have it progressed. Even in correspondence from the Minister of State herself, the Department and HSE officials, they have identified the lack of resources regarding a drug treatment centre in Kildare as urgent and a priority. That is the way they have categorised it. They have also identified that they had hoped to put the service in place in the last quarter of 2017. That is what was stated in the correspondence I received from the Department. Now we are in that quarter and, to the best of my knowledge, the service has not been put in place and there is not the wherewithal to make it happen anytime soon. That is unfortunate, extremely disappointing and no longer acceptable or good enough. At present our nearest drug centre is in Dublin, and the HSE will tell us when we make representations on behalf of individuals who need this urgent drug treatment service that there is a nine-month waiting list. That is wrong. I have factual information to show that people are waiting up to 18 months. They are deemed urgent, important or critical but they are still waiting up to 18 months and have not got the service they require. I have advocated for some time for community groups such as the Abbey Community Project Celbridge to get some State funding. It is currently without any State funding. The only support it gets is bucket collections. I hope this can be moved on and we can support such groups to help in cases such as these where dual diagnosis is required.

This feeds into the area of mental health, which we know is another area of critical need and support. These community groups are the people providing the services to help these individuals who require these drug treatment services and support which is not being provided. Four different families have contacted me in the past week whose loved ones were deemed suicidal, and the only service offered to them is referral to an accident and emergency department. We all know that the accident and emergency departments are not adequately equipped, do not have the appropriate supports and probably do not have the proper staff to deal with these individual priority cases that are specialised. They must be retained and managed there until such time as the necessary support and resources become available. They are being treated in an environment that is not good for them and is adding further stress to them and their families, not to mention the fact they are taking up resources, such as hospital beds, that may be urgently required for patients who need that care and attention.

I hope I have painted the picture, which I regret to have to do again only a short few months since last raising this issue in this House. The fundamental issue is when this drug treatment service and support will be put in place for Kildare and where it will be located. The latter is important from an access perspective. It should not be located in either extreme of the county. For individuals and families who are really struggling and need to access this service, sitting around waiting 18 months for it is not good enough. Being told they must travel to Dublin, where they cannot access support very easily because of infrastructure and a lack of transport at times, is not easy either. I await the Minister of State's reply.

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