Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the legislation on behalf of Sinn Féin. It is one tool to tackle a major problem and I congratulate Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin on pushing it through. It is a good day when action is being taken.

In December last year the Health Research Board released figures for deaths due to poisoning and a drug overdose in the years from 2004 to 2017, inclusive. Almost 7,000 people have died due to a drug overdose or misuse. That is higher than the rate of suicide or fatal road traffic accidents, yet the impetus to do something has been lacking. It is probably seen as self-inflicted. Today we gathered at a ceremony to plant the Tree of Hope on Leinster Lawn. Among the thousands who have committed suicide there are thousands whose completed suicide was due to a drug overdose because of the misery of their lives and their mental health problems.

The Bill is a paradigm shift from criminalisation to health care, which is where we must focus our attention. It is an offer of recovery to members of our own families, mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, children, aunts and uncles, all of whom have been touched by drug misuse and the absolute depths of darkness in which drug users find themselves. The legislation will provide for the establishment, licensing, operation and regulation of supervised injecting facilities for the sole purpose of reducing the harm caused to people who inject drugs. It will also enhance their dignity and well-being. They will have contact on a daily basis with health care workers who will encourage them and provide wrap-around services to enable them to focus on a different lifestyle, one free from drugs. They will not be condemned for depending on drugs in the short life they may have. The legislation will also allow communities to reclaim their local areas, parks and leisure facilities and not to be surrounded by the paraphernalia and litter drug-taking entails. It will help to save lives, which is its importance.

Last Friday in County Louth, Deputies Mary Lou McDonald and Pat Buckley and I concluded five country-wide conferences on dual diagnosis. We spoke to many relatives who talked openly and in distressing terms about the drug-related deaths in their families and how deeply their children were lost to their families as a result of drug misuse and addiction. They wholeheartedly agree with the shift to a health-based approach. Neither they nor I condone, excuse or promote the misuse of drugs, but they recognise that the cycle of death, neglect, criminality and desperation must be cracked. That can and will be achieved through compassion which we need to reintroduce in the health service. Everything we do should be guided by it being a public health issue.