Lorraine Higgins (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I would like to call for the Minister for Justice and Equality to come to the House to debate the need for treatment or rehabilitation centres that specialise in addiction to be regulated. I do not know if other Members watched the recent "Prime Time" special report on a charity, Victory Outreach, that uses pretty appalling practices when dealing with addicts who are attempting recovery with it. For example, it forces the addicts using its services to spend 18 hours a day raising funds for the charity, with daily targets and no pay. The addicts have to give the charity between €80 and €150 from their weekly social welfare payments. The service users have to go cold turkey, which is not advised by experts who work in addiction. The residents are not given any chemical assistance or professional counselling. They are told to use prayer as a way of getting over their addictions. They are also told not to take their prescribed medications. All of this is very concerning.

I feel that an appalling abuse of human rights is being perpetrated by this so-called charity, which started working in Ireland in 1997 and operates five recovery homes here. As it is operating in a market in which supply does not meet demand, unfortunately, it has learned to abuse its special position. To make matters worse, I understand the Irish courts are referring people who come before them and are given probation to this charity. Addiction services that are funded by the HSE are required to meet minimum standards, but unfortunately Victory Outreach is not funded by the HSE, which means there is no provision in law for the regulation of its residential treatment centres and similar centres. They are allowed to operate outside standard practice. The charity's much-maligned practices were highlighted recently in the US, where a contractor was paying illegally low wages to workers from the charity to renovate hotels. I am fearful that its lack of morality and scruples might cause Irish service users to be subjected to worse treatment than that to which they are already subjected and further abuses of their human rights. For that reason, I am calling on the Minister for Justice and Equality to come to this House to debate this issue as a matter of urgency.