Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Youth mental health is one of the greatest challenges faced by our society. I thank the Minister of State for allocating a Jigsaw centre to Thurles. It is operating and is a great help to people experiencing mental health issues. Hopefully, we can extend that service when the Covid-19 restrictions are over to spokes all around the county and continue to develop that worthwhile service.

This House is not nearly focused enough on addiction and the role it plays in mental health issues among young people. Talk to a group of young people and they will point out that the dealers are operating openly where they socialise and play. It could be a GAA, soccer or badminton club, or whatever. Dealers are operating openly. We must put more resources into dealing with this issue. We must tackle the problem of addiction. Unfortunately, addiction leads to mental health issues, and to suicide in a serious percentage of cases.

I plead with the Minister of State to put pressure on the Garda to clamp down on these dealers. I do not see nearly enough enforcement. If teenagers and young adults can tell us where to go to find people supplying tablets, or this, that or the other, surely that information must be available to the Garda. Drugs were only freely available in major urban areas before, but they are now at every crossroads. It is the greatest scourge in modern society. We see instances of young people running up a drugs debt. The drug barons then knock on the parents' door and demand payment of a significant amount of money. Out of fear for the safety of their child, those parents will pay that money. This is a vicious circle that must be stopped. We must tackle this situation. It is happening in every nook and cranny of our country. I do not see enough resources being devoted to addressing this issue. I do not see enough attention being given to it. Until we tackle the drug issue, we will not be able to get to the root of the mental health problems among people.

Therefore, I appeal to the Minister of State to use her influence. She has done great work in the mental health area since she took office just one and three quarter years ago. She has brought great energy and vigour to the role. The tackling of addiction, however, is something that we must address and we must put more resources into this endeavour.

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