Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, in her new role here. It is great to have the Minister of State here in Seanad Éireann. Deputy Naughton is representing the Department of Health and she is Minister of State now in her new role for public health, well-being and the national drugs strategy.

In her new role, the Minister of State is coming here to us regarding the citizens' assembly on drugs use that we are putting together. We need this debate because we can see the impact of drug use on families and communities all across the country. We speak here about city centres. It is not only city centres. In every town across Ireland, you can speak to anyone and you will be able to access drugs. It is not limited to city centres or extremely urban areas.

Communities have been devastated by drug use. It is in our towns. I suppose I am very conscious of that, and particularly the impact of drugs such as alcohol, never mind harder drugs.Alcohol alone is a concern, as is how we, as a society, manage and deal with the impact of alcohol abuse. Every family in Ireland can speak to how it has impacted and destroyed families. The citizens' assembly the Minister of State is putting together will, I am sure, examine many different areas. As she has said, the assembly will comprise one leader and 99 people selected randomly. She spoke of the assembly's terms of reference and I admire the fact it will consider all issues relevant to drug use. That is important. The assembly will lead to recommendations. I am thinking in particular about the harmful impacts of drugs, but also about consideration of the matter from the points of view of health, justice and education. The recommendations that come out of this assembly will require a whole-of-government response. The Minister of State will be taking that on board and working with her colleagues in government to see what we can implement. The Government has shown that it has taken recommendations from citizens' assemblies and been able to implement change on the basis of their outcomes as part of our democracy.

Lived experience is key. I am thinking of the lived experience of people who have taken drugs and have come through it, and others who have not been able to manage taking drugs, their families and the impacts on wider society. Those aspects must be taken into account.

The Minister of State said no one is immune. She and I have spoken briefly on the following matter, which I will follow up on. I will be looking for addiction services in towns across Ireland. There is currently a pilot addiction service in Galway city. I would like something similar in, for example, Ballinasloe. I am only speaking to my own experience. I recently spoke to staff members of Portiuncula Hospital. The general manager told me that many people are presenting with issues around drugs and alcohol. It is leading to more aggression in the emergency department, which is already too small to handle everything. It has people on trolleys and everything else. In parallel, I will also be looking for measures we can consider around addiction services and alcohol treatment in the community. That could happen in the likes of day hospitals. We need to consider models that work well. In areas that are, for example, 20 miles away from the nearest town or 40 miles away from the service in Galway, people cannot access treatment. Every day, I deal with people who are suffering in particular from alcohol addiction and their families. Those families are impacted. I deal with women who are in dangerous situations. I try to find homes for people. Homelessness is happening. I am looking, from a rural perspective, for addiction services that work well. Is there a way we can roll them out in the community without the need for a primary diagnosis in relation to mental health? If people are presenting because their GPs have referred them for alcohol treatment, we must look to roll out services. We might be able to work on that with the Minister of State's officials.

I very much welcome this debate. It is important to have this debate and to consider how we can put measures in place as well as the citizens' assembly, which will run its course. The Minister of State might be able to speak to the timelines involved.