Results 701-720 of 1,060,974 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Seán Crowe OR speaker:Bernard Durkan OR speaker:Carol Nolan OR speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Holly Cairns OR speaker:James Browne OR speaker:Johnny Mythen) in 'Committee meetings'

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: No apologies have been received. Before we go to the main item on today's agenda, the minutes of the committee meetings of 22 and 23 October 2024 have been circulated to members for consideration. Are they agreed? Agreed. The purpose of today's meeting is for the joint committee to consider issues currently facing local drug and alcohol task forces. The meeting will be divided into two...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: I thank Ms Bairéad. Deputy Durkan is leading off.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I welcome the delegation this morning. I thank them for coming along and thank them for the important work that they do in providing a important linkage between Government the people who are affected by addictions. We all have in our respective constituencies various rehabilitation centres, etc. It is important at this stage to recognise that we are coming from a long way back. We have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Bernard Durkan: Mr. Doherty makes an important point. Co-ordination is hugely important. Constant monitoring is required. We need to know where we are going and how fast we are going in a particular direction. Whether the situation is good or bad, we in the community at large need to be alerted. Mr. Doherty mentioned the various entities that are part and parcel of this and need to be at the table. ...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: I am trying to keep the interaction to ten minutes. There may be an opportunity for people to come back in and follow up on points.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: I have some questions. A question was asked about the make up of the drugs task force and the pillars that make up drug rehabilitation, education, health, justice, social protection, and child and family. We all accept it has been a fault line or a weakness in the system that those key players or people of influence are not around the table. If members agree, this is certainly one of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: The past ten years. Not only that, people working in the front-line services have had no increase. Again, that is something that has recently been addressed. Another example would be community healthcare organisation, CHO, 7 where there are ten residential beds. They have run out of funding for that since September. What do they do for the next six months? Again, the balance is that has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: Does Mr. Doherty get any sense of why it is the poor relation with regard to the drugs budget? He told the story about contact being at a low ebb and about simple things like meetings with the Minister that are not structured enough. It just does not seem to be that people get that there is a challenge out there.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: Mr. Doherty said that drugs are no longer sexy. I would argue that we have been in denial for decades regarding the challenge of drugs. Many of us thought that with the emergence of crack cocaine in communities, women being turned into prostitutes, people going into houses without a stick of furniture and children going hungry it would be a wake-up call. It is probably only certain...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: In the task force meetings, a disproportionate amount of time is spent every meeting on funding. It is funding, funding, funding. We should be strategising and talking about the issues, not this idea of funding. There will be common agreement on the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, money. I read a report that stated the Garda recovered something like €20 million in cash alone. Why is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: I do not think I have time. We are supposed to be finished by 11 o'clock. Can we perhaps focus on discussing with the Minister of State what has been raised this morning? We really appreciate the witnesses coming in. It was really useful. I apologise if anyone else was trying to get in. I thank the representatives from the local drugs and alcohol task force chairpersons' network for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Bernard Durkan: We should make it our recommendation that it be a priority for the next committee, whoever is in it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: We can do that, yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: Okay. The meeting is now suspended. We will resume very shortly with the Minister of State.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Seán Crowe: The committee will now resume its consideration of issues facing local drug and alcohol task forces. I have received an apology from Senator Frances Black who has had to leave to introduce a Bill in the Seanad. I am pleased to welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Colm Burke, who has responsibility for public health, well-being and the national drugs strategy. He is accompanied, from the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I welcome the Minister of State. I know he is not familiar with this territory, but it is not so long since he left so he will have a certain familiarity with the problem which will be useful and it is likewise for his officials. What we learned about the task forces from the last group that appeared before the committee - and it was not for the first time - is that the money does not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Bernard Durkan: The ravages of crack cocaine throughout the community were mentioned. Mention was made of deprived communities, not necessarily unemployment, but if there is a serious drug problem in a community, it has an economic impact as well and tends to make the individuals living and attempting to work and survive in such areas do so under a cloud. That is not healthy. We all have to deal with the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Bernard Durkan: If I might come in for a second again, there is a feeling as well that we have not succeeded so far. We have not succeeded in stopping the problem; there is no doubt about that. The challenges continue. We need to intervene in some way to intercept the flow of drugs towards the community in a way that entices the people away. That means a task force needs to be funded with the right to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I will conclude with this. There is a tendency to believe we should almost legalise the administration of drugs generally. I was a member of the task force previously. I visited the Zurich experiment once upon a time in the company of the late Tony Gregory. I visited the Amsterdam experience and incidentally reference was made earlier on to Portugal. None of those things worked. They...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Bernard Durkan: They do not, actually.