Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

RTE will air an investigative programme tonight, the findings of which are already in the public domain, showing how users of an unregulated drug detox service provided by a voluntary organisation were engaged in fund-raising activities for up to 18 hours per day. This raises the obvious issues regarding the regulation of charities, which we have already discussed in this House and which I have asked to be addressed early in the new year. In addition, however, it raises a critical issue regarding the lack of facilities for drug users who wish to become drug-free and the failure to regulate certain facilities. In this instance, it seems that people who availed of a treatment programme did not, in fact, receive any medical treatment or counselling. Indeed, the report suggests their lives were put at risk by, for example, the failure to provide appropriate methadone support and so on.

We have had many debates in this House about the need for vigilance when it comes to the protection of vulnerable people, particularly children and older people. Acute drug users are also very vulnerable and the facilities that provide drug treatment services must be properly regulated. It is obvious to anybody who has ever worked in this area that many of those who end up in drug rehabilitation programmes are from very troubled backgrounds, including care backgrounds. Many of them end up spending time in prison during their lifetime. The drug treatment system and the way in which it is managed and regulated is not adequate to the need that exists. If a person who presented at hospital with a threat to his or her life because of a serious heart condition did not receive the treatment he or she needed, there would be a national outrage. Will the Leader arrange a debate early in the new year on the issue of adequate drug rehabilitation facilities? That debate should include a discussion on the probation and welfare service which, as I understand, has been referring people to some of these unregulated facilities.