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

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. With the greatest of respect to the Minister of State, I am still without much detail and I would much prefer to discuss this with her without a stock reply because that would have much more meaning and substance. The reality is that the information she has given me I have received from her on numerous occasions during the past year. I am well aware of not only the number of people who have been treated through GPs and pharmacies, but also the increasing number that must be treated in Dublin. The problem is that a number of families have been waiting 18 months to get on a methadone programme. I have made numerous representations on behalf of these families and they are still no further on. Some of them this week have presented as suicidal. That is the crux of the matter. I know the Minister of State is well-meaning and I understand she will try to do her best but I have been patient with the Government and her Department in this regard. I have correspondence dating back 12 months telling me this will happen, all things being equal, in the last quarter of 2017. Families have struggled, they have been patient and they have waited in the hope that this much-needed service will be provided. However, we still have no comfort this evening for the families sitting at home looking after loved ones who are waiting to get on one of these methadone programmes, who have been on a list for 18 months and who are at their wits' end, threatening suicide. That is the problem. While the Department waits to deliver the treatment service and treatment centre in Kildare, I respectfully ask the Minister of State to increase the resources in order that the people in need of this service in Kildare can access it as a matter of urgency. Perhaps she would do that for me as a matter of urgency. There are people who need this service, and it is not me identifying this need; clinical analysis has been done showing this need to access services. Will the Minister of State therefore increase the investment in this area to get these people the service they need next week while waiting to get the much-needed service into Kildare that we have been promised?

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