Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House today to engage with us on this really important issue. I wish her well in her role as Minister of State with responsibility for drugs policy. I am very confident that she will be an excellent Minister of State and will make her mark in this Department because I know she is a very human individual and she always looks at the human. She looks beyond the policy and the statistics and at the human experience.

Drugs affect far too many of our citizens. Senator Costello and I are both from the capital. People might think it is a Dublin issue, but it is not. It is in every community in every part of the country now. We wish the Minister of State well and want to support her. She is in the role at an opportune time, because one strategy is coming to an end. She will now have an opportunity to inform and shape the next strategy. She is ideally positioned to this and we want to support her in doing that.

I have been elected Leas-Chathaoirleach of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drug Use. It is a great privilege and honour, and I look forward to serving with the other Senators and TDs on the committee. The committee has a job of work to do over the nine months. We will commence our public hearings in September and we have a job of work to do to take the recommendations from the citizens' assembly and give a reasoned and considered report back to the Government. I look forward to doing that and working on a cross-party basis to ensure that we make recommendations that are implementable.

It is really encouraging to hear the Minister of State advocate so strongly for a health-led approach because that is the human response. I absolutely refute and reject those political voices who try to equate a health-led approach with being soft on criminal and illegal activities. These activities destroy individuals, families and communities, not just in the capital but all over the country.

The statistics for Ireland are shocking. We have the second highest overdose rate in Europe. One in four people in Ireland has used illicit drugs. Approximately 50% of our third level student population have reported using drugs and 70% of our prison population are suffering from addiction. The problem is real.

I take encouragement from the fact that the budget has been significantly increased this year. I think it was an increase of more than €40 million to the budget, an 18% increase. I point to the supervised injection centres, the map that shows the more than 450 drug and alcohol services in our communities, the fact that more than 13,000 cases were actually treated, and the information the Minister of State provided about Dublin Simon Community’s facility in Usher’s Quay.They are all real positives and we must take encouragement from them. We cannot lose sight of the fact that this is a real problem that is eating away and destroying the lives of individuals and their families.

I commend the Minister of State on the launch of the drug-related intimidation and violence engagement, DRIVE, initiative for people struggling with addiction. An articulate man spoke on “Oliver Callan” yesterday morning. I do not know whether any Members got a chance to listen to it. He spoke about how, as a young man, he started using drugs and how it completely took over his life. He spoke about how he started robbing from his own family. The DRIVE programme, therefore, is welcome. It is a great support.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Drugs Use must make strong, implementable recommendations. We must ensure that the next strategy massively reduces harm and increases society’s awareness and ability to respond in a humane and health-led way. It must reduce addiction in our society and increase recovery in order that everyone has an opportunity to live life to its full potential.

I wish the Minister of State well in her work and I look forward to working with her.