Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)

I thank the Minister of State for that response. I am glad she acknowledged we need a step change in how we treat problematic drug users. I represent Limerick city, which the Minister of State knows well. Our city has been absolutely destroyed by drugs, whether the drug barons who prey on vulnerable communities or the crack cocaine epidemic that has ripped through our city. Limerick is unfortunately the crack cocaine capital of Ireland. It has ravaged so many people, even people I went to school with. When talking about drugs more generally, my colleague, Deputy Kelly, referenced cocaine. I cannot go on a night out without seeing people off their heads on cocaine. In fact, I have been routinely offered cocaine in pubs in my own city of Limerick. You see people filing into cubicles. They are not going in there to use the bathroom. I have even seen the effects of problematic cocaine use knock on my own front door. It destroys everything. It destroys people financially, relationally and sexually. Crack cocaine is the most evil and insidious of all drugs. Limerick, as I said, has unfortunately become the crack cocaine capital of Ireland. People travel to Limerick because the crack is cheap and they can buy it in some of the poorest estates in this entire country. There is a house in St. Mary's Park that the locals refer to as Aldi because people are bussed in from outside Limerick. We have another issue because we have an epidemic of sex work. Crack cocaine is so addictive that women are forced into sex work to pay for it. Now, we have an issue with a lot of pregnancies resulting from that.

When it comes to treatment, bar the 30 detox beds in Bruree, people are often forced to travel to Dublin, Carlow or Athy, if they are lucky. When they finish treatment, they are often back into the 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. hostel in Limerick and the vicious cycle begins again. Drug use and problematic drug use are changing. The level of poly drug use in Limerick is incredibly worrying. There are certain treatment centres you cannot get into if you are in benzos, methadone, etc. That needs to be radically changed. That change starts with language. Calling sick, vulnerable people the j-word or "druggies" should not be considered acceptable. This comes from social inequality across the board. We have no psychiatric service in Limerick Prison. We had 92 drug overdoses in our prison system last year. While we have a recovery worker and a dual diagnosis team, we need much more. People from the most deprived areas are disproportionately impacted by this. We need an all-of-government approach to this issue. That starts with taking it out of the courts and into the healthcare system. Nearly 100 people in our prison system nearly died last year due to problematic drug use. That is shocking. It says clearly where we are going wrong.

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