Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour)
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I welcome the Minister of State. As part of my responsibilities when I was Minister of State with responsibility for the national drugs strategy, I took the opportunity to visit as many clinics and speak to as many service operators and service users as I could. Last year, I visited a clinic on Granby Row off Dorset Street where I met a wonderful woman who was travelling from the midlands to Dublin every day to access her methadone. She was a young mother getting her life back together. She took a bus from Portlaoise to the national drug treatment centre in Trinity Court and back every day because she was told she would have had to wait six months for treatment where she lived. Three weeks ago, she died of an overdose. I am told that those who have come to a stage in their lives with their addictions when they realise they cannot go on and ask for help are told they have to wait between six months and two years to get on a methadone maintenance programme. There is a cap on the number of clients certain clinics can help.

I appreciate the efforts of the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne in this regard. I have observed her work at first hand and listened to a number of her speeches.I was at an event a few mornings ago at which she gave an incredibly impassioned speech about our responsibility to treat those who are vulnerable due to their addictions with the most compassion possible. I believe she is doing a sound job and I support her in everything she is doing. However, what is the Department's and the Government's response on how to shorten the waiting time to access this essential treatment programme? Also, what can we do to ensure that clinics such as the one on Granby Row have the capacity to deal with all those who require their services? Obviously, we must address the long waiting times, but having caps on the numbers of patients clinics can deal with does not stand up to scrutiny.

This is a life or death issue. I am advocating for people who are often not well thought of or well regarded in our society. I was incredibly struck when I heard the news last week that the beautiful person I had met, who was getting her life together and doing her best to overcome her addiction by travelling from Portlaoise to Dublin every day to make her and her child's life better, had succumbed to her addiction three weeks ago and died on the street of an overdose. We could save lives by changing or re-evaluating how we are doing things. The people on the front line simply wish to be given the tools to do their work better.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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On behalf of the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Catherine Byrne, I am pleased to address the Seanad on the subject of methadone maintenance treatment. I acknowledge the work Senator Ó Ríordáin did when he was Minister of State and his continued genuine and passionate interest in this area. I also acknowledge his support for the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne. She regrets that she cannot be present as she is attending a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health. I will convey the Senator's comments to her.

Government policy on the drugs issue is set out in the National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016. The overall objective of the strategy is to tackle the harm caused to individuals and society by the misuse of drugs. The strategy emphasises the need to provide opportunities for people to move on from illicit drug use to a drug-free life where that is achievable. Methadone maintenance treatment is a critical stabilising treatment that enables the people concerned to counter their problem drug use and to rebuild their lives. In conjunction with other services and supports, such as counselling, after-care and training, methadone maintenance treatment provides a pathway to recovery for the individual affected by problem substance use. However, different people in various circumstances may require different approaches to treatment and support.

There are currently over 10,000 people availing of methadone treatment. The Health Service Executive, HSE, has advised that the number of individuals awaiting treatment has significantly reduced in recent years. At the end of March 2016, a total of 163 people were waiting on opioid substitution treatment. This compares with 445 in July 2010, a reduction of over 63%. This is against a background of increasing numbers in methadone treatment.

Historically, the development of the addiction service was made possible through consultation and partnership with local communities. This has meant that services were established within particular geographical areas, with the agreement of the local community, that would provide a service specifically to people from that area. The effect of this type of agreement is that it has enabled the HSE to develop methadone services in some areas which may not have had such services previously. However, they were restricted in some instances to providing a service solely to residents from within that area. This approach has made it difficult to develop services that respond to individuals with particular needs, such as people who are homeless, since they do not belong to a specific geographical location.

As the Senator will be aware, the Department of Health is currently developing a new strategy, which the Minister of State hopes will be completed in early 2017. One of the key issues being examined as part of the process is how to improve access to treatment for people affected by problem substance use. A number of issues have been raised in the course of this process, including the difficulty of attracting general practitioners, GPs, to participate in the methadone programme. The slow rate of transfer of patients from the clinics to the primary care setting and from level-two GPs to level-one GPs is also an issue affecting progression rates. The Minister of State is hopeful that solutions will emerge to these issues in the context of the new strategic action plan to tackle the drugs problem.

I am sorry to hear the person the Senator was acquainted with has passed away in those circumstances. I extend our condolences.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton. I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, is obliged to attend a meeting of the health committee. Perhaps the Minister of State would convey to her the seriousness of the situation. I accept that she is aware of it, but perhaps a meeting with the senior team in Granby Row would be of benefit simply to have a first-hand conversation on the pressures the team is under and the solutions it is offering.

I met with the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, after she was appointed and I suggested a number of places that she should visit. She has done that. I am particularly impressed by the compassion she has brought to this brief. Statistics on a page are one thing but the problem with this issue is that those who are afflicted with addiction, particularly heroin addiction, are constantly undermined in the public perception because of their portrayal in the media. When one meets somebody who is getting her life together and who symbolises in one's mind how the system can work and then one hears less than a year later that the person has succumbed to her addiction and one tries to square that with the reality of her life travelling from Portlaoise to Dublin every day, one must only come to the conclusion that the reason this continues is that, at some level, public policy demands that this person be ashamed of the reasons they are ill. There is an element of victim blaming in that regard. I realise the Minister is trying to change this and that she feels passionately about it, but perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, would convey to her an invitation to meet with the senior team in Granby Row. It would be an attempt to understand better the realities that people are dealing with on the front line.

The issue of the cap was not mentioned in the Minister's response. The statistics that were outlined would suggest that things are getting better. Regardless of whether that is true, people are being told it could take two years to get onto a methadone maintenance programme. I believe that is being said to give people the impression that this will not happen overnight, but two years is an awfully long time. Six months is also a long time. For some people the prospect of waiting six months is too long. We are losing people in that gap. I ask the Minister to convey to the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, the invitation to meet the senior management team in the clinic. Perhaps we can then move to a situation where fewer lives are being lost unnecessarily.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I certainly will convey the Senator's comments to the Minister. As the Senator said, she is deeply committed to, and passionate about, this area. She wants to make a difference and is working hard on that, following the work the Senator did in a similar capacity in the last Government. I also note his point with respect to the public perception and the fact that addiction is an illness and should be treated as such, rather than as a crime. That is something which, in other work we have done together previously, we have acknowledged and recognised.

I thank the Senator for bringing this important and serious matter to our attention today. Some questions were unanswered, unfortunately, but I will bring them to the Minister's attention. In addition, if other issues require further clarification, I will ask that it be provided.