Vol. 354 No. 12
asked the Minister for Health, if in view of the very serious drug problem in the Dún Laoghaire area, he will make available a 24-hour clinic for the provision of treatment and advice to drug addicted persons; and the action, if any, he will take in the matter.
205.
asked the Minister for Health the action, if any, he intends taking to deal with the increasing menace of drug pushing in the Dún Laoghaire area; and if he will now consider the advisability of recommending bringing drug pushers within the ambit of the Offences against the State Act.
206.
asked the Minister for Health if he is aware of the serious drug problem in the Dún Laoghaire area; and the facilities, if any, that are available to drug addicts in the greater Dublin area.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 204, 205 and 206 together.
I am well aware of the situation regarding drug abuse in the Dún Laoghaire area. In recent months I have met with representatives of statutory and voluntary groups from the area to discuss the problem. The position is that the Eastern Health Board employ two drug abuse counsellors full time in the Dún Laoghaire area who are engaged in counselling and research work. When the new major £600,000 health centre is ready in mid-1985 at Loughlinstown in the borough area and when the extension to the Shankill health centre is completed additional physical facilities will be available for these services. I am arranging for discussions between my Department and the Eastern Health Board on the question of incorporating emergency medical facilities for drug addicts into the new out-patient department planned for St. Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown.
I have recently indicated to the Dún Laoghaire branch of the National Federation, Community Action on Drugs, that I am prepared to consider favourably any submission which they may wish to make to me on the provision of further services to people with drug-related problems and their families on the understanding, of course, that such services are provided in a co-ordinated professional manner through the Eastern Health Board.
With regard to the need for further services, the Special Government Task Force on Drug Abuse recognised that reliable information on the drug problem in Dún Laoghaire would be necessary to facilitate the planning of intervention strategies. Accordingly they recommended that a detailed survey should be carried out in the area. The Medico-Social Research Board have carried out such a study and I am having it examined in detail at the moment but the following quotation from it points to the fact that efforts to combat this problem have not been in vain:
While these percentages (of drug usage) are sufficient to indicate that the area has a serious problem with at least one addictive and highly dangerous illicit drug, namely heroin, they fall well short of the corresponding 10 per cent in the same age range reported in the North Central Dublin area study (Bradshaw 1983). This finding offers some hope that intensive local efforts, over the past year and a half, to counter experimentation with dangerous drugs among the young have not gone in vain. The vast majority of young people in the area studied would seem to have accepted the fact that heroin, at least, is one drug that cannot be played with lightly.
With regard to the greater Dublin area, a range of specialised facilities is available to people with drug-related problems in addition to the services provided generally by the health and social services. The specialised facilities include:
— Jervis Street Drug Advisory and Treatment Centre which provides a 24 hour, seven day week out-patient and advisory service for drug abusers and a nine bed detoxification unit.
— Coolemine Therapeutic Community provides a city centre referral service and residential services in Coolemine Lodge, Clonsilla, and St. Martha's College, Navan.
The Coolemine community have just recently received my approval to the establishment of a drop-in facility for young people in the Dún Laoghaire area. This service will commence next year and I am providing specific funds through the Eastern Health Board, for it.
— The Rutland Centre, Templeogue, provides services for drug abusers. The Eastern Health Board are involved in out-reach and counselling services at Donore Avenue and Sherrard Street in the inner city.
— The health board also provide counselling services at Usher's Island and in four community care areas. The board, with my approval, intend to expand the service to other community care areas.
The number of places available for detoxification will be increased on the recommendation of the task force. My Department have completed discussions with the authorities of Jervis Street Hospital concerning the provision of replacement accommodation in larger city centre premises for the walk-in drug advisory and treatment centre. This will be provided in the immediate future. In the meantime I made a capital grant available to Jervis Street Hospital which has facilitated the provision of more space for patient care in the drug advisory and treatment centre there.
I have made funds available to the Eastern Health Board to provide larger alternative accommodation for the Talbot day centre, at present in Sherrard Street. The new accommodation will enable the centre to provide a greater range of services for people with drug-related problems.
I also made additional funds available through the health board last year to enable the Coolemine Therapeutic Community to expand its range of services and in addition to the Dún Laoghaire project the community will develop its project at the Lord Edward Street induction centre in 1985.
I should also mention that I am in the process of reorganising the Co-ordinating Committee on Drug Abuse. I have sought representation from members of the Dún Laoghaire Community Action on Drugs, National Federation, and I am happy to say that they have agreed to serve on the new committee.
The Deputy also asked if I would consider the advisability of recommending the extension of the powers of the Offences Against the State Act to cover drug pushing. The task force decided against recommending that drug pushing should be brought within the ambit of the Offences Against the State Act. Instead they recommended a strengthening of the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1977, and a change in court procedures which would involve the assignment of responsibility for all cases involving drug offences in the Dublin area to one judge of the Circuit Court and one district justice.
As the Deputy is aware, I recently introduced an order bringing the various provisions of the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1984, into operation. This Act provides for an increase in the maximum prison sentence for a convicted drug pusher from 14 years to life imprisonment, an increase (fourfold in most cases) in the maximum monetary penalties which can be imposed on summary conviction and the removal of the penalty limit for serious indictable offences such as drug-pushing. I would like to assure the Deputy that the recommendation about the change in court procedures is currently being pursued with the appropriate authorities.
