Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Will the Leader call on the Minister for Health - perhaps it is the Minister of State with responsibility for drugs, although I believe it is the former - to attend the House to debate methadone protocol and the General Medical Services, GMS, contracts? In places around Ireland, for example, Newbridge in County Kildare, there is an 18-month waiting list for a methadone service. The farther one goes from Dublin, the more difficult it becomes to get into a methadone programme. General practitioners, GPs, refuse their patients what is viewed as a medical intervention. If we were to change GMS contracts so that doctors could not refuse to prescribe their patients methadone, it would reduce the waiting list because more stable clients could be moved from clinics and back to their GPs while the more chaotic heroin users who are only starting their treatments could be moved to the clinics. People are dying while on waiting lists, but the lists could be squashed. I would like to be given the chance to discuss this matter with the Minister so that we might get people off heroin and onto methadone programmes in rural Ireland.