Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to join with my colleagues in extending my sympathies to the family of Mary O’Rourke. She was a former colleague who was robust and had a big personality.

As for the Topical Issue, after a week in which the budget was announced, when the Government has finished clapping itself on the back for its give-away budget it is important to remember that 70% of prisoners in Irish prisons have addiction issues. In August of this year, ten prisoners were hospitalised due to suspected drug overdoses. In response to a recent parliamentary question I tabled, the Minister made what I find an astonishing admission - the Irish Prison Service has no full-time addiction nurse. That is pretty shocking, given the level of addiction in Irish prisons. To have no addiction nurse in our prison service is absolutely criminal. When I asked whether there were any addiction nurses in the Prison Service, it said that primary care nurses carry out specialist assessments. In its reply, the Prison Service is acknowledging that addiction is a specialist role, yet it does not employ any full-time addiction nurses. Does the Government care so little about those in addiction in our prisons? Based on the Minister’s response to my recent parliamentary question in which it was stated there are zero addiction nurses in the Prison Service, the answer is a resounding “Yes”. That sums up the Government’s view of those who are vulnerable in our society. If people have money, the Government will look after them, but if people are vulnerable in any way, it just does not care.

The Minister of State will probably say there is a nurse lead appointed to the role of addiction and mental health. However, what exactly is that person managing, given that there is not one full-time addiction nurse in the entire estate? Report after report have recommended that each prison should have full-time addiction nurses. That recommendation has been made since 2009. There are simply no drug addiction nurses despite recommendations being made in 2009, 2016 and again in 2022 in various reports. You have to ask yourself why these reports are being carried out if recommendations are not going to be implemented. What is the point in saying we need more addiction nurses when there has not been one since 2009? It is criminal from this Government.

While I know he will not have the figure off the top of his head, will the Minister of State be able to get the figure for the number of drug overdoses in Mountjoy Prison? Approximately two and a half years ago, one of the Minister of State’s colleagues asked for this information and it was not available then. Those figures are vital if the Government is serious about trying to address overdoses and recovery in Irish prisons. Why are these figures not available, given that this was flagged over two years ago? I suggest the Minister of State does not have those figures because there are no addiction nurses working within the Irish Prison Service and, therefore, it cannot provide this information. Surely those figures would be a basic and essential part of determining a strategy and a process to reduce addiction in Irish prisons. These figures, and the subsequent patterns from them, would not be so hard to find out if a process was set up within the Irish Prison Service. This is not rocket science. Why is it not being done?

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