Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will begin by thanking my party colleague, Deputy Ward, for his hard work on this legislation.

For the last number of months, I have had the honour of meeting with addiction services who are working on the ground. The knowledge and the expertise they have shared with me has been invaluable. I take this opportunity to thank them for meeting with me, sharing their experiences and helping me to build Sinn Féin's policy that reflects what is happening on the ground.

Time and time again, these services have raised with me the issue of dual diagnosis. With no support or funding, many of them are developing their own dual diagnosis support services because they have to. They are sick of people coming to them with serious mental health and addiction issues and not being able to help them.

Dual diagnosis comes in many forms. People can have a severe mental health issue with a minor addiction issue or vice versa. Addiction can be used as a means to cope with mental health issues or mental health issues can develop as a result of addiction.

This is not some simple problem that can be magically fixed but this legislation will put it on the agenda. It will give the HSE the responsibility to develop dual diagnosis services across the State properly and it will lift some of the burden off the under-resourced and oversubscribed addiction services.

I will finish up now. There is much more I could say. This legislation gives us a chance to do what, I think, many of us became Deputies to do. We could improve the lives of many ordinary people who are struggling. Ultimately, that is why we came to this Chamber. We came here so that we can make a difference to people's lives and this Bill will certainly do that. I hope we get the support of all parties and none with it.

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