Results 61-80 of 3,647 for speaker:Gary Gannon
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: I thank both Mr. Collins and Ms Sweeney very much. I will pass over to Ms Quigley.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: Thank you, Ms Quigley, and thanks to all the contributors and witnesses. We move to members who each have seven minutes to make comments and ask questions. If members are asking questions, I ask that they leave time for answers.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: That is an excellent suggestion. How do other members feel about it?
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: With the agreement of the members, we will invite the Minister for Health to the committee.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: I believe the SAOL Project is in with us next week.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: Ms Bairéad wanted to make a comment.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: Deputy Devine made a good suggestion to invite the HSE to come before the committee.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: We will do that alongside the Minister.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: I do not see any reason we cannot. We are tasked with delivering a report in nine months, and in order for that report to be as substantial and informative as it needs to be, we need continuous engagement with the Minister of State.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: We absolutely should not. We have already agreed that we will invite in the Minister of State. Following Senator Ní Chuilinn's suggestion, we will write to the Minister of State, outlining the concerns of the committee about the exclusion, if that is okay. It is important to have the Minister of State come before the committee and explain it to us so that we can put our own questions.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: The HSE will be important in that as well.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: We want them all in. We will start with the Minister of State with responsibility for drug use and the HSE, and we will also invite in the Minister for Health. The Department of education will come before the committee for a separate session in October or November.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: That is grand. We understand.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: I thank Mr. Doherty. We come to me now, which is very exciting. I think all of us find the absence of community involvement on the steering group of the national drugs strategy incomprehensible. Can Ms Quigley or Mr. Collins tell us about their previous involvement? What did the oversight look like? What form did that work take? I ask them to tell us about the roles they have had during...
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: That was what the ideal committee looked like.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: What did the last one look like? When did it become different?
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: Yes.
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: Who was making the decisions in advance? When you say agencies and decision-makers, who were these?
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: This is what people really need to know and understand because often this seems so big and complex and a behemoth. We also know there were ideals that we fell away from regarding addiction. It is about being able to understand the structures, and then we can get to understand who is excluded from them. Turning to Ms Bairéad, I am surprised by how many people watch Oireachtas...
- Committee on Drugs Use: Community Supports: Discussion (2 Oct 2025)
Gary Gannon: I cut Ms Bairéad off earlier just as she was about to tell us how the drugs task forces could be better in terms of where we are now. When I say better, I mean how the drugs task forces can be better aided by the State in terms of the work they do. They already have an important role.