I wish to share my time with Deputy Eric Byrne.
Adjournment Debate. - Treatment for Drug Addicts.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I previously raised this matter on 14 April last with the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy O'Dea, who, I think, is chairman of the national co-ordinating committee and who has special responsibility for this service.
That is correct.
I regret that the Minister of State has not been able to honour the commitments he made in April.
This matter relates to a very serious social issue. It is vitally important that urgent steps be taken to provide treatment for people addicted to heroin when they seek treatment. It is a scandal that when heroin addicts turn up at treatment centres they are turned away and told their names will be put on the waiting list. God only knows when those people will receive treatment. In the meantime they are at the mercy of drug dealers and are driven to crime in order to pay for a fix.
In April the Minister of State agreed that this situation was unacceptable, yet the waiting list at the centre in Amiens Street is the same, if not longer. Two counsellors are employed in this drug treatment centre to treat 120 addicts, while there are more than 200 people on the waiting list. This mirrors the situation which pertained in April. A pharmacist is available for a half a day, five days a week to dispense methadone. There is a clear need for the employment of additional staff in this centre.
The Minister of State charged with responsibility for this very important issue has failed to meet his obligations, failed to honour the commitments he made in April and failed to make any impact on the waiting lists at these satellite clinics. The clinic in Ballyfermot has a waiting list of approximately 150. He has also failed to set up the two new satellite clinics he promised and to provide adequate staff and resources for the city clinic in Amiens Street. In addition, he has failed to bring general practitioners into the service.
This is a litany of failure by the Minister of State charged with the responsibility to care for those people who desperately need support and treatment. In these circumstances, he has no alternative but to offer his resignation. This may not be much comfort to the unfortunate victims of heroin addiction. I hope the Minister will outline the steps he is taking at this very late stage to ensure that people seeking treatment for heroin addiction will not be turned away and will not simply become a name and number on a waiting list.
I thank Deputy Gregory for sharing his time with me. The Minister of State should not be rushed into providing mobile clinics for the city of Dublin. The Eastern Health Board is dealing with what is a very delicate situation and has engaged the services of the best counsellors, doctors and professionals to run satellite clinics. We cannot ignore the fact that communities are reluctant to accept the setting up of satellite clinics in their areas. It is, therefore, important to target those areas with acute drug problems through community drug teams.
The satellite centres provide treatment for up to 250 addicts. My colleagues in the Eastern Health Board and Dublin Corporation have been targeting the Dublin 8 area. While this is a slow process we are making progress with a very dedicated community drug team which is gaining the confidence of people living in a particular flats complex which has a minimum of 60 drug abusers. I appeal to the Minister to make adequate finance and personnel available to develop the concept of community drug teams with the specific task of targeting areas with acute drug problems. This is the way forward. Why is Trinity Court, which is under his jurisdiction treating only 23 addicts when the Eastern Health Board — for example, the Aisling Centre — is treating 145 addicts? Will the Minister agree it is time he looked at the performance of Trinity Court and extended the mandate of the Eastern Health Board to service the drug addicts through the Trinity Court network?
I thank both Deputies for raising this important issue. I am sorry the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy O'Dea, did not have an opportunity to respond to Deputy Gregory's question yesterday. Unfortunately we ran out of time for Priority Questions.
The provision of services for drug misusers in the Dublin area is a matter for the Eastern Health Board. As Deputy Gregory is aware, Government policy in the area of drug misuse is based on the national strategy formulated on the basis of the recommendations of the national co-ordinating committee on drug abuse. Because of the high incidence of intravenous drug use among those who are HIV positive, the strategies for dealing with drug misuse and HIV AIDS are closely interlinked.
Methadone maintenance programmes have been introduced as a means of stabilising the behaviour of drug misusers and preventing the spread of HIV through the use of contaminated needles. To date, as the House is aware, three satellite clinics have been established in the Dublin area for the provision of methadone maintenance, in Baggot Street, Ballyfermot and Amiens Street. The latter clinic is the one referred to by Deputy Gregory. Methadone maintenance is also provided at the drug treatment centre in Pearse Street. These satellite clinics, in addition to methadone maintenance, provide a wide range of services to drug misusers such as needle exchange, counselling, free condoms, outreach and risk reduction programmes and HIV testing. They have become victims of their own success in so far as waiting lists have developed in each clinic. Some 350 people are now on methadone maintenance at the satellite clinics and approximately 400 people are on the waiting list for services, an issue with which I am unhappy.
From January to September 1,506 people attended the drug treatment centres and 109 are currently on methadone maintenance. Funding was allocated to the Eastern Health Board to allow for the provision of two additional clinics this year. Because of opposition from local communities, progress on establishing these two clinics has been slower than anticipated. Both Deputies will be aware that the Eastern Health Board is now, as a matter of urgency, examining the options available to it to provide an appropriate service for those currently on waiting lists and who have not been in receipt of a service to date. The board will continue the programme to provide a network of satellite clinics around Dublin which will provide services for communities within their particular catchment area.
Deputies will also be aware that the report of the expert group on a protocol for prescribing methadone has recently been sent to general practitioners. This offers another option for the provision of methadone maintenance for drug misusers, since it provides the necessary framework for support services which will allow general practitioners to become involved in prescribing methadone. The intention is that drug misusers attending the satellite clinics who will have been stabilised on methadone, would then be referred to general practitioners who would take on the responsibility of ongoing treatment. This would have the effect of freeing places at the satellite clinics for those on waiting lists.
I am confident that the combination of measures I have outlined will result in a significant reduction in the waiting lists. I will take careful note of the specific points made by the Deputies and ensure that the Minister of State is made fully aware of them.