Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Members for their good wishes and the constructive comments most Senators made. My commitment was questioned, however, and the manner of my delivery was criticised. I promise to work on that in future. I always know when somebody has very little to say about a topic; they tend to focus on the Minister’s delivery.

Unfortunately, it is not just outside the school gates that there tends to be some drug dealing going on but within the schools too. We have to be mindful of the stresses and strains that teachers are constantly undergoing in this regard. On the glamorous lifestyle that seems to be attached to the drugs trade, as I have often said, if one locks a child out of mainstream society and they do not get respect from it, they will find a parallel economy and a way of getting empowerment and prestige. The drugs trade is glamorous, lucrative and exciting, and gets one cheap and easy money. There is a challenge in the education system and in wider society to tackle this.

Senator Burke asked about the use of Suboxone to treat drug addiction. There is not a legislative blockage as such, but we will need regulations because we are dealing with a small cohort of people for whom Suboxone is being prescribed. Further regulations will be needed in the Bill to expand on this.

There has been a reduction in funding for the local drugs task forces, but nowhere near 80%. The Irish Timesclarified that this was not the case. It has been 9.8% over the past nine years. While no one wants to defend such a reduction, it is the reality of what the entire country went through over the past several years. In fact, every drugs task force got an extra €48,000 this year.

I concur with Senator Bacik about putting the emphasis on harm reduction. I welcome the fact that the justice committee is going to Portugal. Portugal had a different approach when it came to decriminalising drugs. When I use that term, I want to make it clear that I am not talking about legalisation. Those are two very different things. We have to come back to the research and wonder why 70% of those going through the courts for drugs offences were found in possession of amounts for personal use. This seems to be a complete waste of Garda time and the time of the Courts Service. It is primarily a health issue for those with addictions or problems, not a criminal justice issue, and that is the way in which it should be tackled.

The issue of class was raised. In my experience, drugs are everywhere. Neither is it just a Dublin issue. It affects other urban centres and rural areas. As I have said before, middle-class families have ways of hiding drug addiction and drug problems in a way that working-class people sometimes cannot. Drug gangs get their funding from middle-class recreational drug takers who think there is absolutely no connection between their recreational drug use at the weekend and a dead body found in a pool of blood with a gunshot wound to the head or a heroin baby born with an addiction problem. There is obviously a link. When one takes recreational drugs, then one is feeding that menace.

I appreciate the support for the suggestion of consumption rooms. I know people will have concerns around how they will manifest themselves and be operated. If one examines what happens in Sydney and the 88 such centres across Europe, it is an approach to the cohort of drugs users who are so desperate that they will inject heroin in an alleyway or the stairwell of a flats complex. Recently, I took a 45-minute walk around Dublin city centre with the Ana Liffey Drug Project, which advocates this new approach. We did not have to walk very far to see all the paraphernalia of drug taking, syringes and so forth.What gardaí, those working with drug addicts, the addicts themselves and even the retailers working in the city centre will say is that this is not good for anybody. It is not good for the image of the city and it certainly is not good for the individuals to have to reduce themselves to a position where they feel they have nowhere else to go for their medical need, for their addiction, than down a side alley to inject themselves. Should we not find some new approach to that small enough cohort of people who do not fit the criteria to go into a mainstream programme for treatment and, in this way, facilitate them to do what they do in a more dignified fashion as a step toward recovery? I think it is worthy of assessment and investigation, and it is something I am determined to do.

This House has a good reputation for coming together collectively and on a cross-party basis to focus on issues such as direct provision and other issues of common intent. If this House was to come together collectively and on a cross-party basis and say this is something that should be investigated, this would stop it being a political football and we could take a practical approach to those most vulnerable of drug users who are most inclined to get involved in anti-social behaviour, burglary, muggings and all the rest of it because their need is so great.

We have a fantastic opportunity at this time, as a collective, due to the redrafting of the national drugs strategy. I believe there should be a shorter timeframe for the next strategy because seven years is too long and perhaps a five-year strategy would be better the next time. Given the Misuse of Drugs Act is currently being amended in the Dáil, this means we have a number of windows of opportunity through which we can force these issues.

I would appreciate the opportunity to come back to this House to toss these issues around, as I have done on other issues. I have been asked whether I am too busy. I do not think anybody is too busy to deal with the drugs crisis and the drugs issues we have in this country. I do not think we can say the situation is worse or better; it is just different. The drugs issue changes drastically all the time. The age cohorts are different; we have lost a generation to heroin and the people are now older. The needs are different and the type of drug use is different, with polydrug use now common. The complication with alcohol is different and the type of drinking being done is different.

If drugs are changing, we have to change our approach. The "just say no" approach will work for some people, including children, and we can frighten some children away from drug use completely. However, it does not work for everybody. We have to accept that and work on issues that may actually achieve something. The approaches in Portugal and in Sydney may be something we could look at but we have to get beyond the idea of calling people who have a medical need by a nickname, calling them junkies and assuming they are just human litter, and that as long as we push them away and do not see them, the problem is solved. I do not believe that. If we believe in a Republic, and we all now believe in equality, then the person who is injecting themselves in the side alley in Dublin city centre, or in any town or part of this country, is as equal a citizen as any of the rest of us and deserves the dignity of having the State help him or her through what is obviously a medical need. I do not believe the criminal justice system is the best way to do that. I appreciate the comments made by Senators and I am happy to come back to the House at any time to flesh out these issues.