Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are not comparing like with like. Other European countries do not have the same mechanism for determining the cause of death. For instance, Scotland was not covered in that report. Even though that report covered 29 countries, only 21 countries actually had figures. One country that was not included was Scotland, where the number of deaths was over 1,200. I am not saying that we should accept what is happening; we should not. One death is one death too many. We need to work on reducing the numbers. It came down by 19% between 2021 and 2022. We do not have the 2023 figures yet.

Hopefully, the reduction to which I refer will have continued. There are other medications such as naloxone that are so important in this area. Ms McArdle might wish to come in on this.