I thank Senators for their detailed contributions to this Bill. A number of Senators spoke about the implementation of the recommendations of the task force. I feel quite strongly that not sufficient cognisance is taken of the fact that significant progress has been made to date on most of the recommendations of the task force. For example, on the law enforcement side, we have this Bill and in addition we have the Criminal Justice Bill coming before the House tomorrow. As Senators will be aware, the Criminal Justice Bill also deals with the question of drug pushing in the criminal justice context.
Regarding the Drugs Squad I should point out that in the past few weeks a number of additional ban-ghardaí have been assigned to the drug units in Dublin, Cork and Limerick as recommended by the task force. There was the prospect of a heroin development in Limerick which was contained and eliminated. There were drugs in use in Cork of a non-heroin nature.
I know that ban-gardaí were necessary in this area of work. A number of them have special training and I know their contributions, as recommended by the task force, will be quite effective.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Peter Barry, has introduced a more rigorous checking system for applications for passports. Some Irish passports were abused in terms of criminal activity in this area. This has been stopped by the Departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs. The rigorous system of checking has closed off that loophole which resulted in a number of passports being stolen.
The recommendation relating to the appointment of one judge of the Circuit Court and one district justice, who would have a very special responsibility for all cases involving drug offences in the Dublin area, is being pursued with the relevant authorities. It is a difficult area. The co-operation of the Judiciary under the relevant statutes has to be obtained. The proposal relating to the appointment of one solicitor in the Chief State Solicitor's office who would specialise in drug offence case work is also being pursued.
Senator Deenihan and a number of other Senators raised the question of education. Significant progress has already been made in this area. I could arrange, through the Department of Education, for Deputies or Senators to see a set of five video films which have been developed in co-operation with the HEB for use within the context of the life skills type programme in second level schools. They are being shown throughout the country in schools, youth clubs and to parent groups. If any Senators want to have access to those video films in their own areas I would be prepared to arrange that through the Health Education Bureau. They will see the tremendous merit of that medium. Senator Bulbulia correctly referred to the impact of that type of video work. Many of our young people including, for example, about 15,000 people in the inner city of Dublin, cannot read or write. Videos have an impact in this area.
The Minister for Education has also asked the new Curriculum and Examinations Board to examine the introduction of health education in schools, both at primary and post-primary levels. This is a difficult and sensitive area. Health education in schools tends to evolve around the issue of sex education. I am very much an advocate of the need for sex education in our schools; there is also need for education in relation to life. It is essential that within the Curriculum and Examinations Board ethos there should be particular training in relation to drug abuse.
We plan to develop a programme of training in drug education so that selected teachers would be able to attend longer courses and progress would be made towards the stated aim, shared by all parties of the Oireachtas, of having at least one teacher in every school who would be in a position to advise on aspects of the drug problem in each school, particularly schools in the risk areas. That is progress and work is being done in that area.
I have also made a substantial sum of money available to Trinity College to enable a diploma course in addiction studies to take place. That course started last January. The first group of specialised diploma persons will shortly complete that course. It will include social workers, teachers, guidance counsellors and members of the Garda. They will quality, for the first time in the history of the State, with a diploma in addiction studies. They will have that specialised training. They will be in direct contact with drug abusers and their families. This is the kind of work that is being done. The next course will start in September. Persons are now being selected for that course and if Senators wish to bring that to the attention of either the health boards or the local community, persons will be selected and sent on that course.
On the youth and community and development sides, the task force were quite active. They met the HEB, Cospóir, the National Youth Council and the National Youth Policy Committee. We were worried about the delivery of services in the Dublin area. They had been in touch with Mr. Frank Feely, the City and County Manager. There was a meeting quite recently in the Ballymun area. It was generally successful. The participants undertook to have the various suggestions, which would involve their organisations, co-ordinated under the aegis of the manager. The co-operation of these groups with statutory and other agencies will do a good deal to improve the social and physical environment in the area.
There is need for research. I do not want to decry in any way the work done by the Medico-Social Research Board, but initially the work was somewhat sketchy. It gave a broad picture. It did not relate to specific aspects of the drug problem, particularly among adolescents or, for example, fundamental research on peer groups and on socio-economic groupings in different areas. In my constituency in Dún Laoghaire we have a serious drug problem and the incidence of drug abuse in, say, downtown Dún Laoghaire could be compared with, one might say, uptown Killiney where quite different socio-economic groups are living. That work is now being done. It is being funded by the Department of Health and basic research is taking place under the aegis of the Medico-Social Research Board. Only yesterday, Geoffrey Dean of that board told me that some fundamental information was becoming available relating to some 60 case studies in the Dún Laoghaire area, because the drug problem has been quite prevalent there.
As a consequence of some of the alleged actions by alleged concerned parents drug-pushing has been exported from St. Theresa's Gardens out to Terenure where the drug-pushers now are instead of being in the inner city. All that happens is that the drug-pushers go out there to get their drugs and that is regarded by the Provos as their solution to the problem. I will come to that later on, because that superficial cashing in on a social problem is the hallmark of the Provo-Sinn Féin activity in the greater Dublin area. You can talk to members of the Garda Síochána, social workers or members of the clergy involved in this area and they will readily confirm the statement that I have made.
The question of treatment and rehabilitation services was raised by Senator Fallon and by Senator Brendan Ryan, particularly in relation to Jervis Street. I can assure the House that discussions are going on between the representatives of my Department and the authorities of St. James's and Jervis Street Hospitals and Beaumont Hospital Board concerning the implementation of the recommendations of the task force.
Only last week I met the representatives of the Jervis Street board. I want to put on record my thanks and appreciation to the Chairman, Denis McCarthy, and his colleagues, for their outstanding co-operation in relation to the future installation of services in Jervis Street Hospital. As we all know, Jervis Street and Richmond Hospitals will move to Beaumont in July 1985 and in the interim period we must now plan the walk-in, walk-out detoxification services within Jervis Street itself. It is intended to make both capital moneys and revenue moneys available to the hospital in that regard.
There is, however, the problem of the future of the structure of Jervis Street and the extent to which portion or all of it would be used for that service. That is the kind of discussion we are having and we have established a clear, co-operative climate with the Jervis Street Hospital authorities and the work will be done.
It is true to say in relation to St. James's Hospital that there were some original misgivings, as there are in relation to any hospital. Jervis Street have to cope with a drug problem, but have more than that to cope with. They have an accident and an emergency unit, also. Like any hospital in Dublin on a Saturday night anybody seeing the rota of activity on accident and emergency, with many junior and senior citizens turning up half out of their minds from car accidents involving alcohol and so on, begins to wonder about the question of drug abuse. Nursing and consultant staff are involved in pumping out over-consumption of alcohol, at enormous cost to the taxpayer, I might add. But all hospitals, including Jervis Street, have to cope with that more serious problem. The biggest drug problem in Ireland is alcoholism, the next biggest after that is tobacco substance abuse and a long way after that come heroin, cannabis and other abuses. Nevertheless, this is the problem we are dealing with tonight. I hope I will receive an equally supportive hearing from the House when I bring legislation relating to tobacco consumption before the House in due course, despite the intense pressures which are now on me not to do so.
The other hospitals also have been very co-operative. St. James's Hospital for the south side of Dublin will have beds and treatment facilities within the hospital and will provide services. Regarding other aspects of treatment, particularly treatment referred to quite appropriately by Senator Ryan for persons who are under 16 years, I want to thank the Eastern Health Board and, in particular, the Coolmine Therapeutic Community who have been very supportive and anxious to provide services, particularly for those addicts who are under 16 years. We have had discussions with Coolmine on that aspect. I would recommend strongly to Senators that they visit that centre. It is only 25-odd miles from Dublin, in the area appropriate to where that Senator lives rather than to his constituency at national level.
The work being done in Coolmine has been quite exceptional and I am confident that that kind of regime and discipline, in the treatment sense, can be of enormous help to young people, particularly those under 16, in trying to rid themselves of this appalling habit. I have made additional funds available for 1984 to assist Coolmine in meeting the demands now being made upon its services. These demands, indeed, are quite exceptional, but the work is being done. The Eastern Health Board also are now examining —— again at my specific request —— the needs of young people with drug-related problems and my Department are keeping in touch with the board in that regard.
I referred to the recruitment of additional ban-ghardaí and to the now very large drugs squads —— well over the 40 mark —— which are spread throughout the country. But it is true to say that we cannot just rely exclusively on the excellent work being done by the drugs squad. They cannot do all the work on their own. All Garda recruits are now given special training in relation to drug problems and the Garda generally are increasingly involved in the fight against drug abuse. The increase in the number and amount of seizures in terms of value is a reflection of this general involvement. We cannot just continually rely to an enormous degree on the excellent work being done by the drugs squad. We have to rely on all members of the Garda Síochána and, in particular, all members of the public to combat the situation. I will come to that later.
There has been a suggestion that I have been particularly irate about. While I do not mind people being opposed to me politically —— they may not share my own particular political views and in a democracy that is quite understandable —— the one thing I get totally frustrated about is the allegation that the Minister of the day, the authorities of the day and the Department of Health of the day are doing nothing in the greater Dublin area in terms of provision of services. That kind of allegation, quite frankly, incenses the staff of my Department who are limited in number. The total staff in the Department of Health number only about 350. They are all experts in their own right, in their own areas. Likewise, whatever about the bureaucratic deficiencies, real or otherwise, in the Eastern Health Board it is involved in the provision of programmes in the greater Dublin area. I ask those critics, be they appearing on the Pat Kenny Show on RTE or on the Gay Byrne Show, in Seanad Éireann or elsewhere to go down to the Talbot Centre in Sheriff Street in Dublin to see what is being done there, the group therapy work, the counselling and the literary classes provided in the centre. It is intended to extend this service to cater for a number of young women.
It is an appalling fact that a number of young pregnant women in Dublin are on heroin. That centre is trying to cater for those young women. I have no medical expertise but I am assured by a number of obstetricians that babies are born with heroin addiction. Their plight is absolutely tragic. Needless to remark, other babies are born suffering from alcohol addiction and the ill-effects of tobacco. That is a reality to which we have become accustomed in our blasé civilisation.
Some of our critics should talk to the project leader in the Talbot Centre and to the group worker about the work being done in that area. There is also a day care facility in Donore Avenue. I have seen the work being done there by individuals such as Paul Humphreys. I have seen the work being done by the project leader and by the counsellor on substance abuse. Some people infer that nothing is being done at all even though workers are paid and subsidised by the health boards through the Department of Health and through the taxpayer. There has to be give and take in this area.
In the Cherry Orchard-Ballyfermot area, the health board have assigned a public health nurse to act as a tracercounsellor on a non-attached basis. The service is not based in any centre. This nurse's availability is well known to all the GPs in the area, and to local community groups. She traces and counsels drug-related hospital cases who are discharged from Cherry Orchard. We have an abominable fixation in this country that, for any kind of treatment we deliver within the community, be it hospital care, day care or drug-related care, we have to have buildings. Everybody wants buildings. Everybody wants receptionists. Everybody wants porters and secretarial assistance. What is far more important is that we have people who live and work in an area and who do not require this outdated conservatism which public representatives in particular are obsessed with of having the physical existence of the structure. I find very often in respect of those services that 40 per cent of all expenditure is on the administrative side. Sometimes it is as high as 60 per cent or 70 per cent of those people chasing paper and chasing their own tails instead of being out in the field doing the work they are being paid to do.
Even in my own constituency people want centres, major buildings, major facilities, beds and beds. In my area of Dún Laoghaire-Ballybrack we appointed a senior professional qualified counsellor in substance abuse who works within the health service. She is a qualified nurse and she provided her own clinics. She is involved in outreach and counselling work. She travels around co-ordinating the activities of voluntary groups in the area. She is of enormous assistance to individual families, but she does not have to sit in an office all day. In Irish society we have the doctor's surgery to which everybody allegedly goes. There is an idea that everybody requires the same kind of treatment centre for drug treatment when, in fact, the best treatment given to a drug addict is inside his own home with his or her own family.
The health board give a substantial grant to the Rutland Centre in Dublin which in recent years has extended its services for the treatment of alcohol abuse to include services for illicit drug abusers. I have seen the work being done in the Rutland Centre. People are excessively reluctant to give credit where credit is due in that regard. In the Dublin area the health board are in the process of building a youth development centre in the grounds of the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. This centre will provide accommodation for 31 disturbed young males and females whose behaviour, including drug-related offences, has resulted in their being directly in contact with the processes of the law. To the extent that accommodation is necessary it is being provided.
Some money has been allocated to the Anna Liffey Project which has often been the subject of some interest. In my own area of Ballybrack where there is a drug problem, we have given a grant to a group there called Team Challenge to assist them in their work in educating young people about drugs and drug abuse. In addition, other grants are being paid to a number of youth community organisations to help them to expand their existing services. That is the kind of work being done in Dublin.
I do not wish to go into the work being done in other health board areas because I could keep Senators here all evening. In the Southern Health Board area considerable work is being done towards the establishment of an early intervention and advisory service. In September 1982 excellent work was done by the committee. I commend in particular the work being done in the Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal areas by the North Western Health Board. I regard that as a model partnership between the education and health areas of activity, particularly the life skills programme for schools. I urge Senators to make contact with that health board if they are in that area because a partnership in that area has ensured the delivery of a very positive health programme facility which I have seen for myself. I spent some time viewing the life skills project. It is a direct support system to second level schools. It is in situ and working tremendously well in the schools in the North Western Health Board area.
For example, it provides a framework for the development of a comprehensive health education programme within the school, including sex education and drug abuse education. It trains teachers in informal teaching methods. It provides teaching materials and visual aids for implementing a programme and it provides specific training in areas such as drug abuse. That programme, based on some excellent work which was brought from Scotland and integrated into the programme, has proved to be outstanding. I recommend that those Senators who wish to see the programme in action should contact the CEO, Donal O'Shea, who will arrange for them to view the kind of work being done there. My only regret is that other health board areas have not shown the same activity in that area.
Senator Ryan raised the question of concerned parents. We have to be very careful and I, more than most, must be particularly careful about our observations in that regard. I want to assure the Senator that we all want to give every encouragement to concerned parents to come together on an organised basis under the aegis, for example, of the Coolmine advisers. If they wish to form in the greater Dublin area or in the Leinster area I can do no more than to recommend that they contact Jim Cumberton, the director of Coolmine, who is well known to Senator Brendan Ryan. He will then attend a meeting and a group of people will formally establish themselves as a group of concerned parents.
What I object to and vehemently oppose is the Provos deliberately moving into a particular area, bringing in their video cameras and their tape recording machines, and going around talking to young drug addicts and using the information on a purely political basis. They hold spurious marches and demonstrations and create a spurious heightening of local activity, all on a superficial basis with no relationship to treatment, or to anything other than threats of physical violence against individuals who may or may not be involved in drug pushing. Nevertheless they are tried, judged, and knee-capped and shot at by people who have no authority whatsoever to take the law into their own hands and who then masquerade as the people who are solving the drug problem.
That is a situation which has emerged in a number of areas but it is one which the law of the land and the Garda will not tolerate and which we as a community should not fall for. That is the situation we should be concerned about. There is only one short step from that. These people say, "We will give you protection from drug pushers but in all other aspects of life you had better obey our diktat".
I draw the distinction between truly concerned parents and those in subversive organisations who masquerade as concerned parents but who have decided quite deliberately and cynically to avail of the drug issue to gain transient political popularity for themselves in that area. Those of us around long enough in public life can smell that kind of activity a mile away. I would include Senator Brendan Ryan in that regard because he is long enough involved in voluntary community work to know the kind of sharp distinctions which we must all make. My advice is very simply that any group of parents who are worried about the situation. should contact the Department of Health or they should contact the Coolmine director, Jim Cumberton. They will get basic advice and guidance and will not be taken for a short, sharp political ride whereby the drug pushers will be sent from one area out to another, for example, from downtown Dún Laoghaire to uptown Ballybrack where they are there anyway, from Ballybrack back over to Dundrum or from St. Theresa's Gardens out to Rathmines and from Rathmines to Terenure where they are now.
Our problem is to combat drug abuse and that includes drug pushers. The first fight has to be in trying to reduce the number of addicts. If you reduce the number of addicts and prevent people from becoming addicted, then the rationale of the drug pusher ceases to exist and his lifestyle is determined. You can shoot one drug pusher but the drug addict will find another drug pusher and you will merely double the profits for the remaining individuals. That is why I feel strongly about it. The Garda authorities will endorse what I have said.
Likewise, we should avoid some of the statements which have been made. It is easy to become either emotionally involved in this area or to make allegations which are untrue. I can assure Senator Ryan, although he did not make the allegation, it is not true that there were five or six heroin addicts who died over a particular weekend in June in Jervis Street. The situation as ——
