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

Everybody welcomes additional funding, but without restoring the original funding it does not make sense. I refer to the recent report by the Health Research Board into drug-related deaths. I know these figures are from 2016 and I know why there is a two-year delay before figures can be ascertained, but it is really very significant that drug-related deaths are on the increase. Alcohol-related deaths increased by 18%. Prescription drugs were implicated in 258 deaths. Some three in four of all 354 poisoning deaths were from overdoses. Two thirds of poisoning deaths involved a cocktail of drugs and hangings had trebled among drug users. Benzodiazapines are implicated in the majority of overdose deaths. Three quarters of the 736 drug-related deaths in 2016 involved males. That is the kind of scenario with which the drugs and alcohol task forces are dealing. They have also had alcohol added to their work. Everybody agrees with that but the implications have not really been considered. We know that alcohol is very significant in drug-related deaths.

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