This is my first opportunity to congratulate Deputy Coveney on his success in the by-election and to warmly welcome him to the House. I now invite him to make his maiden speech.
Adjournment Debate. - Drug Treatment Centres.
Mr. Coveney
I speak tonight for the children in Cork South Central who are suffering from the curse of drug abuse. Why is the Government refusing to help them? In my first speech in Dáil Éireann, I want to impress upon the Minister for Health and Children and the Minister for Education and Science, though he is not here, the urgent need to fund a specialist drug treatment programme for adolescent children in Cork.
Drug dealers today are targeting younger and younger children. Pushers lie in wait outside schoolyards — sometimes even primary school-yards — for their innocent victims. Drug addiction is no longer confined to adults or even people in their late teens or early twenties. The drug culture now ensnares children in their early teens, who may be 12 and 13 years old. To those who do not recognise this I say that they have their heads in the sand and are completely out of touch with the drug problem. While the victims become younger, the dealers become more efficient and more organised. Unfortunately, we have to tackle evil, calculating people who are perfecting the art of picking off the most vulnerable children in our society.
Every day somebody's young son or daughter in Cork becomes a drug addict and becomes a child that is out of control with educational, emotional and behavioural problems. These children desperately need treatment. In Cork at present we have an extraordinary situation. We have three specially equipped treatment centres for young drug abusers that are lying idle because there is no money available to fund them: Garryvoe in east Cork, Ahiohill in west Cork and Trabeg in Douglas in Cork city. These centres are part of a model of adolescent drug treatment that works; it is based on 20 years of research and experience. They are fully equipped and ready to reopen; their 30 beds are all empty.
This programme allows children who desperately need help to be taken out of the surroundings that lead them astray. It educates children on how to re-enter society in a positive way and then monitors their progress. This programme of treatment works so efficiently that in the last three years referrals were taken from Dublin, Mayo, Sligo, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford.
The treatment works. Yet due to a lack of funding, the centres had to close last November. Everyone connected with combating drug abuse in Cork wants these centres re-opened: parents of addicts, addicts who have come through treatment, local councillors, the Garda, the drugs task force unit in Cork, the Southern Health Board and drug counsellors who have parents crying over the phone asking for help.
Why will the Government not act? Children should not have to wait for the drug treatment, particularly in Cork: the facility is already there. The research, buildings, expertise and staff are all there. All that is needed is funding.
The funding is not that substantial — £900,000 pounds will fund these three centres per annum. We have a system that can save children's lives. Next week is European Drug Prevention Week. If ever there was a suitable time to announce funding for these centres, next week is the time. These children's, lives are worth more than £1 million. Will we see the money coming to them?
I thank Deputy Coveney for raising this matter and congratulate him on his maiden speech on such an important topic.
Provision of drug treatment services in the Cork area is primarily the responsibility of the Southern Health Board, which has developed a comprehensive alcohol and drugs strategy which aims to assess and measure the extent of the problem, strengthen links with health services and other agencies, generate a community response and develop appropriate services.
The board has established a co-ordination forum on alcohol and drug misuse which is drawn from a cross-section of agencies within the health board and action taken to date in the provision of services includes the enhancement of drugs education and awareness programmes, the development of Arbour House, training for general practitioners and the improvement of data collection.
Drug treatment services for adolescents are mainly provided on an out-patient basis with the appropriate counselling, support and rehabilitation provided to young people and their parents.
Mr. Coveney
There is no residential treatment.
This out-patient model is in the main mode of national treatment. Beidh freagra agat i gceann nóiméad. It is recognised that where young people can be treated in their own area with the support of parents or local voluntary and community groups, this results in successful treatment outcomes.
For a small number of adolescents, however, it is acknowledged that in-patient facilities are required. The health board has been working with Matt Talbot Services in Cork which has identified the resources necessary to establish residential treatment facilities for adolescents at three locations run by this group. These facilities would cater for out of control young people with a range of problems including addiction. Representatives of Matt Talbot Services have met with my colleagues the Minister, Deputy Martin, and Ministers of State, Deputies Flood, Fahey and Dan Wallace, together with officials from my Department. There is agreement that there is a cross-service dimension to this proposal. I am aware that the assessment committee for the allocation of the youth services development fund is examining the proposal with a view to the provision of seed funding for the project. The Southern Health Board is supportive of this project and its financial contribution to the programme will be decided in the context of the board's overall allocation for drugs services in 1999.