National Drugs Strategy.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 October 2004

Tuesday, 5 October 2004

Ceisteanna (343, 344, 345)

Seán Crowe

Ceist:

464 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will be proactive in the support for the development of a needle exchange programme in prisons here. [23227/04]

Arthur Morgan

Ceist:

465 Mr. Morgan asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will recommend to the national drugs strategy that it adopt a single common standard in tackling the issue of drugs which will incorporate the challenge to address the matter within the prison system. [23229/04]

Arthur Morgan

Ceist:

466 Mr. Morgan asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his views on the principle of equivalence with respect to the treatment of drug abuse in prisons, as endorsed internationally; and the measures he is taking to support that principle. [23230/04]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (Mr. N. Ahern)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 464 to 466, inclusive, together.

As the Deputies may be aware, the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, NACD, produced a report last May entitled Review of Harm Reduction Approaches to Minimising the Sharing of Equipment Used to Administer Drugs.

Arising from the report, the NACD recommended that service provision for drug users in prison should mirror the range of treatment and harm reduction approaches which are available in the community. In this regard, the Government has been developing drugs services in prison, including methadone maintenance, over recent years. However, full implementation of this recommendation, in particular with regard to needle exchange, obviously poses serious issues within a prison environment and will have to be very carefully examined.

I would also like to point out that the national drugs strategy 2001-08 sets out a number of actions to be fulfilled by the Prison Service, including actions 21 and 22. These actions provide for the implementation of proposals designed to end heroin use in prisons during the period of the strategy and for the expansion of prison-based treatment and rehabilitation programmes. Progress is being made on the implementation of both of these actions.

Policy regarding drug misuse in prisons is a matter for my colleague, Deputy McDowell, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.