Vol. 517 No. 3
3 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Taoiseach the number of times and days the Cabinet sub-committee on social inclusion and drugs met this Dáil term; the measures, if any, to combat drug misuse which have been approved by the Government arising from the sub-committee's proposals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8768/00]
4 Mr. Gregory asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet sub-committee on social inclusion and drugs last met; when its next scheduled meeting will take place. [9600/00]
5 Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Taoiseach the number of times the Cabinet sub-committee on social inclusion and drugs has met in 2000. [9652/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 to 5, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet sub-committee met on two occasions during this Dáil term. Meetings took place on Thursday, 27 January, and Wednesday, 24 February 2000. The meeting scheduled for Tuesday, 21 March, was postponed until Wednesday, 12 April, as the Taoiseach was travelling to the special European Council in Lisbon on that day.
The Cabinet sub-committee continues to give political direction to the national drugs strategy and the young people's facilities and services fund. The meetings provide an opportunity to review trends, assess progress in the relevant strategies and programmes and resolve any policy and organisational problems which may arise. At its two meetings during this Dáil term, the Cabinet sub-committee noted the progress made in implementing these initiatives which are aimed at addressing the drug problem in a targeted manner.
At its meeting in February, the sub-committee considered the report of the interim advisory committee on drugs which was established, inter alia, to make recommendations on the role, structure and composition of a national advisory committee which would have continuing responsibility for research and information on drug misuse in Ireland. This matter will shortly be submitted to Government for consideration.
I take this opportunity to wish the Minister of State well on his appointment. He says the Cabinet sub-committee met on two occasions and noted progress in different areas. Does he not think the time has come for the Cabinet to give new political direction, having regard to the anecdotal evidence that hundreds of young people in this city are still on a waiting list for access to the methadone programme? What is the Minister of State's best assessment of the number of drug abusers awaiting access to that programme?
A review of the national drugs strategy will take place shortly. The terms of reference of the review are currently being finalised and I hope to take them to the meeting next week. It is hoped the review will be completed by the end of September.
There are approximately 4,400 people on the methadone maintenance programme at present. Some people claim there are up to 13,000 people awaiting access to the programme but nobody knows the exact number. The only way we will know that is when sufficient services are available so that when somebody seeks help they will be given immediate access to the services. There are nearly 50 drug clinics throughout the city, a high number compared with the figure for a few years ago.
A couple of days after I was appointed to office a journalist challenged me to prove there were 13,000 addicts; he did not believe the number approached that. We will know the figure when the services are available so people can avail of treatment when they want it. We are approaching that objective and I like to think we will be close to it by the end of the year. There was local resistance to the establishment of methadone maintenance clinics and that slowed the process. However, that resistance is not as strong now. People realise that if they look after local drug addicts in their locality, it will not lead to the problems which occurred in areas where huge numbers of addicts were being treated. There were many problems outside these large clinics.
I take it that the best advice available to the Minister of State indicates that the number of drug abusers might be as high as 13,000 in this city alone. The gap between that and the number of people on the methadone programme is enormous. Have we not reached the stage where there ought to be a better assessment of the number? Does the Minister of State intend to take new steps to deal with the gaps in the treatment infrastructure?
There has been considerable enhancement of community based clinics. However, the gap between the 4,000 people on methadone maintenance programmes and 13,000 abusers in this city alone is enormous. Can the Minister offer hope to those areas which, through ignorance or otherwise, have resisted the installation of community based treatment clinics and give a commitment that the network will be completed as soon as possible?
It is up to everybody, including Members of this House, to back health boards when they set up methadone maintenance clinics in local areas. Generally most people do. It is not an easy task.
The Minister should have a word with the people behind him.
If Deputies and other politicians stick together at local level the problems with the maintenance programme can be overcome because it is working. The programme is making life much easier for the addicts, their families and communities. It is a first step and we need to examine ways of moving people away from methadone and on to a drug free life.
The review of the national drugs strategy will cover many of the questions raised. Its purpose is to review the strategy and identify gaps or deficiencies. It will also develop or revise strategies and, if necessary, identify new structures to deliver them. The review will identify the latest available data on the nature and extent of problem drug use in the country as a whole, emerging trends and drug use in areas with the greatest level of problem drug use. It will also outline the current national drugs strategy, including the role of the statutory agencies, the community and voluntary sector in terms of supply reduction, education prevention and awareness, risk reduction, treatment and rehabilitation, inter-agency co-ordination and integration and community and voluntary sector participation in the design and delivery of the strategies.
The review will also examine the impact of the national drugs strategy across the headings listed in the context of the objectives set out for it and the resources allocated to date, identify major gaps and deficiencies presented across these headings, examine international trends, developments and best practice models and, in the light of the foregoing, consider how the national drugs strategy, including the structures involved in its development and delivery, can be revised or modified to meet the gaps and deficiencies identified and make recommendations to the Government before the end of September. Fora will be available to people to enable them express their views. People will also be asked to make written submissions.
(Dublin West): Is the Cabinet sub-committee aware that while progress has been made, much more needs to be done? Is it also aware that with regard to the initial stages of treating heroin addicts, rehabilitation and after care is still a major problem? Does the Minister of State agree the Government must put much more funding, thought and personnel into this area? None of us wants thousands of addicts to remain on methadone. Rehabilitation and after care would provide the structure, support and means whereby they could come off methadone, which has bad side effects.
Is the Cabinet sub-committee also aware that in the Dublin area there is a problem recruiting sufficient numbers of doctors trained in heroin addiction treatment and that more urgent measures are needed to ensure there are sufficient doctors to cover every part of the greater Dublin area?
Is the Cabinet sub-committee aware that there is a problem with community pharmacists playing a full role in the treatment of heroin addicts and that there is a reluctance on the part of some? Does the Minister of State agree that pharmacists have as much a moral obligation and responsibility to provide whatever assistance and support is needed to those in our society who are addicted to heroin as they do to people who suffer other illnesses?
I agree with the Deputy and, now that I have taken on responsibility for this area, I would like to see much more resources being devoted to rehabilitation and after care. A first step has been taken in putting people on a methadone maintenance programme which places some order on the chaotic lives they lead. However, it is only the first step and people must move on from that through rehabilitation, counselling and other programmes where other drugs will be used. There are other ways of getting people off heroin or methadone and living a drug-free life. I agree with the Deputy that it is important.
Michael Farrell, who is based in the National Addiction Centre in London, conducted an assessment of Eastern Health Board services and found that 40% of those on a methadone maintenance programme were returning to work. There are positive signs and we should ensure that those positive signs are sent out to addicts so they will know that, if they go on a methadone maintenance programme, there will be light at the end of the tunnel. FÁS has ring fenced about 1,000 places for training. There are developments but I would like to see more happen in the area.
I agree there is a problem with some pharmacists and doctors who are not properly trained. I gather the health board is trying to deal with that at present. It is something of which the health board is conscious and which it has raised with me.
I congratulate my constituency colleague. This is the first opportunity I have had on the floor of the House during Question Time to acknowledge his long overdue appointment to the Government ranks.
The next stage beyond methadone is an assisted path back into the paid employed workforce. While the Minister of State indicated that FÁS has ring fenced up to 1,000 training places, does he agree that a more pro-active approach is needed and we need to break down the prejudice which exists countrywide among employers of all hues and ranks against recovering addicts? Similar prejudice existed 50 years ago against prisoners and that prejudice had to be confronted in a pro-active way. Does the Minister of State envisage undertaking a programme above and beyond what FÁS has done and in conjunction with IBEC, FÁS and the social partners and through the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness to proceed to the next step? Unless there is a path into the world of work and remuneration, people will not stay indefinitely on methadone treatment.
As regards the methadone protocol, perhaps the Minister of State may have available to him in his supplementary information the number of doctors who signed up to adhere to the methadone protocol and if he believes that more doctors are needed to facilitate this dispersal of the process throughout the areas where drugs are used to prevent the process from being demonised?
I do not have the number of doctors but I know that it is causing a certain amount of concern. There is a reluctance on the part of some doctors to deal with people who are on a methadone maintenance programme for the obvious reasons that they do not want them to be seen in their clinics as it may deter other patients. The health board is conscious of that and is trying to address it. The ideal is that people would go to their GP and receive their methadone.
Regarding employment and training and getting people back into the workforce, I agree that issue must be pushed strongly. I am sure if employers were approached properly they would like to employ people who are trained. I was in Deputy Rabbitte's constituency last Friday and I saw the number of young people being trained to be computer literate. They were extremely positive about what they were doing and about their future employment prospects. We must break the prejudice and show people that just because someone was a heroin addict—
The Minister of State is responsible for doing that.
I will press for that in the review of the drugs strategy. I will do everything to ensure this vital area is moved forward.
As the Minister of State is responsible for the drugs programme, does he have any plans to meet the Garda Commissioner or the Garda authorities? Does he agree that people who go out at night with balaclavas and use bully boy tactics to deal with the problem of drug abuse are only exacerbating the problem? Does he agree that tracts of working class Dublin which are afflicted by this problem are inadequately policed and are inviting others to sort out the problem, so to speak? Law abiding parents who are fearful of their children falling into the clutches of the drug pushers sometimes welcome the problem being dealt with by undemocratic and brutal tactics. Will the Minister of State seek a meeting with the Garda Commissioner and the Garda authorities on this pressing problem in certain working class areas of Dublin?
I have sought a meeting with the Garda authorities and they will shortly inform me of a date when I can meet them. It is difficult for people living within the law to fight the drugs problem if someone at local level deals with it by using a baseball bat and balaclava. The gardaí have a duty to ensure they fight the drugs problem in these areas. One of the complaints I have received from local drug task forces is that people are selling drugs on street corners and undermining the good work they are doing in providing services. That is one of the reasons I asked for a meeting with the gardaí. I agree with the Deputy that it is difficult for everyone, including public representatives, if people take the law into their own hands. I will highlight this issue when I meet the Garda authorities.
We must also deal with the issue of middle rank drug pushers who have a good lifestyle, although it may not be as good as the more notorious drug pushers, but no obvious source of income. Just because we have dealt with some of the big drug pushers does not mean we should leave the middle men untouched because they will become more notorious in a few years' time.
