Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for staying until 11 p.m. on a Tuesday evening. It is much appreciated. I am going to bring him on a bit of a journey. I worked in front-line addiction services for a number of years prior to becoming involved in politics. I am going to talk about the case of a young mother who sought help for chronic addiction, but it could be anybody. She entered the service I was working in and was immediately provided with key working. She was then given counselling and a care plan was developed for her. Part of that care plan was to get her ready for a drug detox in the Cuan Dara centre in Cherry Orchard. The patient went to Cuan Dara and completed the detox. She was then ready to go from Cuan Dara to Keltoi, which was the natural continuing care pathway at the time.

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She went from Keltoi into supported housing and then into aftercare with Keltoi, which continued to support her. From the supported housing, she went back into her community, managed to get her children back in her life and became a very productive member of society. Without Keltoi, however, and that continuum of care, that mother would never have got her children back and may never have got back into the community or become a productive member of society.

Keltoi works with complex people who have a significant amount of trauma and may use drugs to self-medicate and to calm their anxious inner world. It also helps people with dual diagnosis. The State is absolutely lacking in services for those with dual diagnosis. A service such as that provided by Keltoi is not available anywhere else in the HSE. Keltoi has been closed for two years this month and for those two years there has been a gap in the services of the HSE for people looking for rehabilitation and treatment for drug addiction. We need to get this service open.

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