James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the extraordinary effort and work that has been put in at all levels of our health service. I am sure the Ministers of State will join me in paying tribute to those who have been working on the front line of the Covid-19 situation in our hospitals, especially in intensive care units given the stress and strain on workers in that setting. The National Ambulance Service has also been absolutely extraordinary.

I have worked hand in hand with the Ministers of State, Deputies Butler and Rabbitte, throughout the past two years. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge and thank both of them, most sincerely, for their work. I have also worked with the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, on issues pertaining to drug addiction and other addiction issues throughout the pandemic which, of course, remain a concern for me.

I have ongoing concerns regarding drug addiction among younger people in our society. Sadly, the pandemic has brought unimaginable levels of stress and pressure on young people. It has had knock-on impacts on all sectors of society. I am not forgetting about anybody here but I want to focus particularly on teenagers and people in their 20s, and their growth and development in life. Every parent in the Chamber will join me in acknowledging this point. The group has been so badly impacted, it is hard to get a measure of the damage that has been done. That is something that the health service will have to be cognisant of in the next number of years.

When it comes to drug use, unfortunately, with pubs and other hospitality settings where alcohol is consumed having been closed, from my experience, the go to substance for people who were using for recreational use has been cocaine. I have many concerns about the level of cocaine consumption. Once upon a time, this was only an issue within cities. Acknowledging, of course, that it is an issue, it was not something that was seen in rural areas but no matter where anyone goes in rural Ireland now, whether in a pub in any town or village in my constituency or, indeed, in our cities, this is a serious and growing problem. According to the figures, drug consumption, particularly of cocaine, is climbing and the age bracket at which it is being consumed is lowering. That is frightening. It merits us putting additional focus and resources on particularly the area of advertising. It is so important.

I do not want to finish without acknowledging that the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, has been very helpful in his communication to me on that particular issue but I would call on the Department of Health to focus on a public advertising campaign to inform young people about the dangers of drug use. It may not happen every drug user but there will be one or two individuals in a group of 20 who may have a bad reaction ,which, unfortunately, often leads to long-term consequences for their health and, in some cases, death. That is something that frightens me, as a 24-year old. I want to highlight that that should be prioritised within the Department.

I also want to acknowledge some of the points that were made by Deputy Murnane O'Connor regarding the immunocompromised. These points have been relayed to me. It is important for people within society to acknowledge that there are people among us who face many health risks and they are worried about, and fearful of, reintegrating back into normality, as we would have known it before 2019, given what we have lost out on over the past two years. It is important that there would be a focus on public information in this regard for the next number of months.

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