Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, for attending this important discussion. I am sure we all watched RTÉ's "Prime Time" documentary the other day on Dublin's O'Connell Street. People throughout the country, having watched it, came away with the view that something needs to be done about this. The Minister of State and members of the Dáil Business Committee know I have been asking for the past year for statements in the House on the issue of the city of Dublin as a whole. Many of the issues captured by the documentary on O'Connell Street are happening on streets all over the city centre.

Following the documentary, there was something of a public outcry. There also were two fairly derogatory statements made by politicians. One I will not focus on because it was retracted and that is fine. I have more of an issue with the second statement because it comes down to the question of how we solve these issues, which I have been trying to combat for most of my adult life. I refer to the comment by the Minister for Justice during the programme that she is going to clean up O'Connell Street. Much of what she was talking about when she said that pertained to people. One cannot clean up people. Dublin City Council is not going to go out and clean up people.

This is a complex issue that requires a multitude of different responses. That is where the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, has a responsibility. There is a policing solution for O'Connell Street, which will deal with a small part of the problem, and it should be done. There is aggressive behaviour happening on the street, with people being attacked. The perpetrators certainly should be removed by the Garda at the first opportunity and held to account. However, that is very different from what has been happening down the laneways off O'Connell Street and in streets and laneways all over this city every single day and night. There are people in various states of trauma and people taking drugs, not for recreational purposes but to alleviate suffering they experienced at some point in their life.

I need to see that the Minister of State understands this issue and will work to address the problem. Will he outline in his response how the Government and he, in his role as Minister of State with responsibility for drugs policy, are looking at helping people to remove themselves from the scourge of addiction? What types of supports are being offered? I would like to know whether the Minister, Deputy McEntee, consulted him before saying she is going to clean up the streets. Will we have a high-level task force that will make the association between addiction and mental health supports? Will we see an increase in supervised detoxification recovery beds? There is really important and intensive work needed to remove a person from situations arising from traumatic experiences. Did the Minister talk to the Minister of State about safe injection facilities, consumption rooms or the types of outreach supports that used to be available but seem not to be there any more? Such supports must be provided by people who are trained by the HSE rather than volunteers, although there certainly is good work being done voluntarily. This is intensive work that requires professional training in outreach, communication, building relationships and, when trust is established, offering the appropriate supports, which must include mental health supports.

I have been advocating for a high-level, Taoiseach-led task force on these issues. The Taoiseach does not seem to be interested in that, which is a debate for another day. Does the Minister of State, who has responsibility for drugs policy, see a role for himself in addressing these issues? I am sure he does but I would like to know what he considers it to be. I would like to understand the metrics. How are we measuring success in this field? I believe we have failed continuously. The Minister of State has said on many occasions that the Government takes a healthcare approach to drugs. That is true to a point but we still criminalise people for behaviours that are about trying to alleviate suffering. That is what people are doing when they inject themselves, smoke crack cocaine and engage in those types of really complex drug-taking. It requires a much more complex response than simply criminalising them. I ask the Minister of State to take his time in outlining his response. I look forward to coming back in after he has given it.

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