Marie Sherlock
Dublin Central · Labour Party · Ireland
“That is why I want to see our local authorities moving from being just bystanders that license waste collection companies to actually controlling how the service is delivered.”
“That is why I want to pay tribute to all the people who are here today, including Stoneybatter Pride of Place, Phibsboro Village Tidy Towns and all the people working within their communities to keep them clean.”
“Panda’s parent company, Beauparc, sold for €1.3 billion in 2021 to an Australian investment firm. It is also co-owned by a US private equity firm. They are not in Ireland for the good of their health. They are here because they know they can make serious money. We know Greyhound’s parent company is registered on the Isle of Man.”
“The other important thing to say is that we did not hear any new ideas today, and I say that with the greatest respect to the Minister of State. We did not hear any ideas with regard to the profound challenges we have regarding our plateauing recycling rates and all the other issues that are there. That is disappointing.”
“I pay tribute to a lot of the work that many officials and workers in Dublin City Council do because, in some ways, their hands are tied behind their back. They recognise the issue with regard to landlord responsibility. I am very disappointed to hear the Minister of State's comments about landlord responsibility.”
“Dublin City Council was able to negotiate for the installation of ten-tonne compactors in the commercial areas, yet when it came to the residential areas, I understand the council tried to negotiate with the bin collectors on the roll-out of shared collection systems, but to no avail. That pretty much sums up our dysfunctional system.”
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“Far too few GPs are being trained at this point in time, or are showing an interest. We need to actively ensure we have a good distribution of care across the country. No country is perfect but we can learn a lot from Iceland, Malta, Spain and Australia. Malta is a small country like our own. It has shown the way. Its model is a de-pathologised model, building on maximising the health and psychological well-being of the individual. There is a very similar model in Iceland that operates with minimal wait times. Australia has developed a comprehensive and evidence-based model that puts significant emphasis on multidisciplinary care. It relies on the input and support of GPs, community-based healthcare and telehealth. It ensures a continuum of care, something that is so desperately lacking in Ireland.”
“Second, we need to ensure that multidisciplinary teams play a much greater role, in particular given the role of psychologists and medical social workers in their interaction with the National Gender Service. Third, we need a continuum of care from teenage years into adulthood. It is a huge dereliction of duty on the part of the Department of Health that there is no service at all for trans youth or adolescents in this country right now, or for their parents who want to support their children. Right now, CAMHS is the only service, and it is so wrong that children would be directed there. We need GPs to be a critical part of the new framework. There needs to be specific training on the importance of hormonal blood tests, safe prescribing of HRT and the handling of referrals.”
“All too often, we hear clinicians dismissing informed consent as a person going in there and demanding whatever they believe to be appropriate. That is not what it is about. It is about seeking the appropriate hormonal treatment and being informed about the consequences - not being interrogated but being informed. There is an irony here that people who have been living as trans for the past four years, waiting for their appointments with the National Gender Service, have had many years to think about what they are, who they are and what they need. They do not wake up some morning and say that this is what they want to be. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yet, far too often, their experience with the National Gender Service is just that.”
“As the Minister knows, there is a lot of hurt and terror out there due to the assessment process and the invasive line of questioning. From a clinician’s perspective, I understand that in order to prescribe medication, there has to be a careful process but the current model is simply unacceptable. It makes no sense. We have to start trusting people when they say they are trans. We have to stop traumatising them at the assessment and stop pathologising so much of the trans experience. Yes, it is complicated, and yes, hormonal treatment may not resolve all the issues but we have to move away from what appears to be a paternalistic, judgmental model of care. We have to put forward something that puts the patient at the heart of decision-making. That involves informed consent.”
“For many others, the lack of health and social support is having a devastating impact on their education, work and family and social life. That is why we in the Labour Party are bringing forward this motion today. These are our young people, sons, daughters and siblings, and, for some, it is their parents, colleagues, neighbours and friends. I know a review of the model of care is currently under way and that the findings will be published next year. I want to set out our belief in the Labour Party about what needs to happen. We need a new model of care, a model that is rooted in informed consent, self-determination and respect for the bodily autonomy of individuals. We do not need to start from scratch. There are models out there in other countries that we can take guidance from.”
“We desperately and urgently need a reset in how those services are provided in this country. The stakes are so high. For too many trans people, the wait time of four and a half years makes them feel like there is no service. Is it any wonder that so many suffer crippling mental health issues because of the lack of supports? We know from research by BeLonG To and Trinity College in 2024 of the very real impact, which is summed up by that feeling of hopelessness. The lack of supports can have deadly consequences. During the summer, The Journal reported research by Trans Healthcare Ireland that 75% of trans people have self-harmed, 82% of trans people have experienced suicidal thoughts and, shockingly, 39% of trans people have had a suicide attempt.”
“We are angry that so many people had to go down the DIY route. It is estimated that some 30% are self-medicating with medicines bought on the black market, with no proper GP or clinical monitoring, and all the risks that entails. We are frustrated that so much care has been centralised through the National Gender Service here in Dublin and that GP care is non-existent in many parts of the country for trans people. We are aghast that there has been little or no recruitment since 2020. At the heart of all of this, we are concerned about the actual model of care itself. I have spoken to a significant number of trans people in recent months about their experiences. I have also reached out to the staff of the NGS to understand their perspective on the service they provide. To be frank, the whole provision of services is an absolute mess.”
“While there are many debates about models of care and the rights and wrongs of various institutions, all we want is that young, vulnerable trans people out there are afforded compassionate, appropriate and timely healthcare. I appreciate that the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, Deputy Mary Butler, cannot be here today. I pay tribute to her work in this area in recent years. I very much hope that she makes progress. I know that we stand here today very angry and distressed at what is available in this country. We are angry that vulnerable young people are being forced to wait four and a half years before they can even get an initial appointment with the National Gender Service. That is a lifetime to a young, vulnerable person who desperately needs support.”
“It is fair to say that it is far from guaranteed that the 2015 legislation would be progressed so smoothly today. The war on LGBTQ+ rights has taken a devastating and disgusting turn in recent years across the world, with rising hostility by Governments in Hungary and elsewhere across eastern Europe, and attacks here at home and, indeed, within this Chamber and in the Seanad. All of this reminds us that progress cannot be taken for granted. It needs to be actively protected and supported. For us in the Labour Party, gender recognition was only ever one part of the jigsaw. For us, a compassionate, caring system of healthcare is the other part of the social contract that we owe trans people in this country.”
“I am very proud to be moving this motion today on behalf of the Labour Party. It is ten years since the passing of the Gender Recognition Act in 2015, and a decade since the Labour Party in government introduced legislation to formally recognise and afford dignity to trans people in this country. This came after many years of campaigning. I want to pay particular tribute to all those who fought for it over a long period of time. Today, in the Visitors Gallery, we have many guests who have been fighting for better healthcare and human rights for trans people for a long time - BeLonG To, LGBT Ireland, TENI, Trans Healthcare Action, AMLÉ, IADTSU, Mammies4TransRights, Labour LGBTQ+, Spunout, ShoutOut and those from the trans community themselves, who have come here today for this important motion.”
“I move: That Dáil Éireann: recalls that it is now a decade since the passage of the Gender Recognition Act 2015; notes that: — trans healthcare in Ireland is consistently ranked as the worst in Europe, with over 2,000 people on a waiting list for healthcare; — stories from transgender people constantly highlight how Ireland's flawed healthcare system is not working, with invasive and insensitive scrutiny from the current National Gender Service; and — the previous Programme for Government committed to a stronger model for trans healthcare in line with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) international best practice guidelines, but the current Programme for Government has watered down those commitments to the point where they are meaningless; recognises that: — there is a need to change the current approach to transgender healthcare in Ireland; and — the Health Service Executive has initiated a new clinical programme for gender healthcare, is developing an updated clinical model, and has established a Clinical Advisory Group; and calls on the Government to: — provide a model of gender-affirming care in primary care settings, with a focus on General Practitioner-led (GP) care, based on informed consent as per WPATH and world Health Organization guidelines, and international best practice; — replace the National Gender Service with a new national clinical programme for trans healthcare in Ireland, with integrated care pathways, recognising a key role for GPs, and the major need for recruitment of specialists providing gender affirming care; — ensure that the new national clinical programme: — is developed in collaboration with transgender people; — has specific responsibility and oversight for governance and training, alongside ensuring transgender healthcare is based on informed patient consent; — provides comprehensive training for healthcare professionals in gender-affirming care; — has a comprehensive network of GP's providing that care in primary care community-based settings; and — further provides appropriate resourcing of specialist gender affirming care and the expansion of gender affirming surgical services, so that the majority of trans persons requiring surgery do not have to travel abroad; — confirm a timeline for the introduction of the new clinical programme for trans healthcare; — establish guidance and facilities to allow for trans healthcare for young people aged under 18; — implement a ban on conversion therapies that is inclusive of trans identities and healthcare; — implement the recommendations of the 2018 Government Review of the Gender Recognition Act 2015, including to allow for the recognition of non-binary people and simplified non-medicalised gender recognition for young people under 18; and — ensure that the bodily autonomy of intersex children and adults is respected.”
“In all good conscience, does he believe that is good enough for companies in Dublin or companies across the country that use Dublin's docklands every day and bring their cars to Dublin for testing? It is a nonsense to say that Dublin's docklands need to be developed and that it is the jewel in the crown with regard to trade in this country if those operating at the docks cannot get their cars tested close to their place of work.”
“The Government is playing into the hands of the big business of commercial vehicle testing centres and will put the small fellas out of business. That is wrong. It is also going to mean a loss of jobs, which is wrong. Will the Minister of State find out which companies are going to lose out? He has spoken about the majority but not all companies can comply with the new regulations. I have yet to hear why exactly the RSA wants a drive-through lane. No engineering rationale as to why that is necessary has been put forward. The RSA seems to have arbitrarily decided that this should happen. I want the Minister of State to find out which companies are going to have to close because of this.”
“I hear a very clear admission by the Department that the directive does not set out specific criteria regarding a drive-through lane. The business I am talking about serves Dublin's docklands. Businesses from Tipperary and other parts of the country bring their vans to be tested there because they are up in the docklands early in the morning and can get those vans tested during the day. It does not just affect companies in Dublin; it affects companies right across the country. I did not hear the Minister of State say that he has taken responsibility for this issue. This Government is talking about trying to reduce congestion and improve competitiveness for the logistics and haulage sector but it is going to force commercial vehicles to go out past the M50 to get tested. It makes no sense.”
“William O’Brien Motors has been fighting and debating with the Department over a number of years now about the need for this drive-through. A person from the Road Safety Authority came out a number of weeks ago and tried to provide helpful suggestions as to how William O’Brien Motors could comply with the regulations. The key issue is it would wipe out William O’Brien’s business. If he was to comply with the regulations it would effectively do away with all the other things he would need like a waiting room, toilets and office space. My question to the Minister of State is whether he wants places like this to close down out of the communities in which they are serving.”
“In 2012 it was asked by Dublin City Council to move to a premises – the only premises that could be found in the north inner city to facilitate such testing - because the council wanted to keep it in the city centre. Bear in mind the council asked William O’Brien to move in 2012 notwithstanding that there was guidance in place since 2004 and there was no intervention or interference then by the Road Safety Authority or the Department of Transport in the move to the current centre. It is 8,500 sq. ft. of which 4,250 sq. ft. is currently allocated to testing. If the Minister of State was to walk into that centre he would see it is capable of a 360 degree turn. It does not have the capacity for a drive-through but it is entirely safe in terms of how it is laid out.”
“I did not get a specific answer to the key question I asked of the Department two years ago on the technical and engineering justification for a drive-through in these commercial vehicle roadworthiness testing centres. While we do not know that explanation, we know the regulations that will come into force on 18 March 2027 will result in the closure of at least four testing centres across the country and the loss of associated jobs. Those centres will be lost in Dublin’s north inner city, in Coolock, Greenhills, Ballymun and in many other parts of the country where it is not possible to introduce a drive-through. I will give the Minister of State an example because this has come to my attention through William O’Brien Motors in the north inner city, in my constituency. It was set up in 1993.”
“The programme for Government states, "This Government will: Support the [logistics and road haulage] sector to ensure the efficiency of the supply chain and to maintain competitiveness" and the Minister of State has special responsibility for this area. There is also a commitment in the programme for Government to try to reduce the emissions from the logistics and road haulage sector. That applies to a lot of the vehicles, especially the commercial light goods vehicles that are in question here with respect to their annual testing and where they are tested. My frustration is with SI No. 475/2022 which effectively mandates a series of improvements to light goods commercial vehicle testing centres. I support most of these improvements but one relates to the specific need for a drive-through.”
“Go raibh maith agat a Chathaoirligh. I thank the Minister of State for taking this question. We had to postpone to tonight so he could be in the Chamber to take this. My question relates to commercial vehicle roadworthiness testing centre operators and tester regulations. I very much support improvement and adherence to the highest standards regarding commercial vehicle testing. I also very much support the concept of a 15-minute city and keeping services as close as possible to where they are needed. I support initiatives to reduce congestion and we have obviously had a lot of debate about the M7 over the past week and the carpark it has become, and the M50 has of course been incredibly congested for a number of years.”
“I do not think anybody is suggesting that full pay is sustainable into 2026 and beyond, but what should be sustainable for a small amount of money is a recognition that it is an occupational illness, with a new scheme put in place. The reality is that the science in 2021 suggested that people would be fully over long Covid at this stage. In June, I said I believed the Department was splitting hairs between Covid-19 and long Covid. The science and medical research are well established now in confirming what long Covid is. I know that are many long Covid sufferers and their families who are watching this debate are asking the Minister, with the rest of Government, to champion this such that it will be recognised as an occupational illness and a new scheme will be put in place in 2026.”
“Every long Covid sufferer out there will acknowledge that this scheme has been extended. They are very grateful that it has been kept going until now, but the reality is 159 healthcare workers are out there, including nurses, healthcare support workers, social workers and those working in mental health institutions, who face the prospect of a dramatic drop in income because of a condition they acquired in the workplace. Ireland, alongside Greece, is the only EU member state not to recognise long Covid. What will the Minister do to champion the rights of healthcare workers? As she knows, the temporary rehabilitation remuneration, TRR, scheme will only give workers just over a third of their full pay, at 37.5%. Some of these workers hope to go back into the workforce eventually.”
“My question relates to the special sick pay scheme for Covid sufferers in the health service. As the Minister knows, it is expiring at the end of this year. We spoke about this in June. The Labour Court ruled that it should be extended to the end of the year. What interventions is the Minister making to ensure those 120-plus workers have decent financial support into 2026 in recognition of the fact they acquired this illness in the workplace in the course of their work?”
“We in the Labour Party have said for many months now that the HSE needs to take over the board of CHI. We very much welcome the Minister's move in that regard. We urge her to move with speed on that issue. It is no silver bullet but it will be progress. Ultimately, the biggest question in my mind now is getting this inquiry right, getting the answers and making sure that systems improve at the same time. The people needing to provide the answers will also have to improve their act with regard to the services.”
“The second key issue is the investigation into the cases of children who passed away because of the failings in care and those children for whom surgical intervention was too late. There will inevitably be allegations that will lead to litigation and so on. It will potentially go on for a very long time. We believe the onus is on the Minister to ensure that this inquiry will deliver the answers that we, the public and particularly the parents, so much need. Our request to the Minister is that this inquiry can get those answers, which may turn adversarial, while also ensuring that the system improves. There are very real question marks about how that can happen with a very limited number of staff at the heart of these questions over the coming years. That will be no easy task.”
“First, we need a module on whether CHI is implementing the change that it has promised to deliver. In effect, we need a mediated process whereby the record is set straight between clinicians and parents as to the status of the child's care. All too often parents come to me and to other Deputies here who feel gaslit, who feel they are not being told the truth and who feel they are being told conflicting stories by the clinicians and the health staff that they interact with. I hear what the Minister said regarding the process that is up and running with regard to that lady who is already interacting with those families but it needs to be a mediated process between the clinicians and the families because ultimately many of the families feel they are not getting the truth they so rightly deserve.”
“I, and we in the Labour Party, believe that compellability will be important. It is vital that the advocacy groups be there all along the way. I pay particular tribute to the tenacity and perseverance of the Scoliosis Advocacy Network and the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Paediatric Advocacy Group. Many of those parents already have so much on their hands trying to care for their child. They are fighting for their family but they are doing much more than that. They are fighting for other families who do not have that capacity. It is absolutely exhausting and they have been at it for so many years. With regard to getting truth, accountability and justice out of this inquiry, the critical thing for us is that we believe a twin-track process needs to be in place. There will have to be a series of stage reports.”
“They have not been offered the option to travel and when they spoke to their surgeon, they were told that surgeon does not have a list in the Blackrock Clinic and, therefore, could not refer that child to the outsourced option, whereas that option appears to be available to other children. How can we have a dysfunctional system where one surgeon decides who gets outsourced, whereas another surgeon cannot? This is the dysfunction at the heart of CHI. With regard to this inquiry, so much is riding on what it will produce where it seems a number of reports have failed. Obviously, it is really important that it will have compellability because, ultimately, any inquiry is only as good as the fulsome participation of the clinicians and management. There are serious questions as to whether they will participate willingly or not.”
“While, as I said, there are some really good spinal surgeons out there working in our system, we have to ask how we have got to this place. With regard to what is happening now, we know the list is longer this year than it was last year, as the Minister alluded to, and there are 139 on the list now. There is an element of us not even running to stand still. We understand that no child has been scheduled for treatment abroad over the past number of months, and we have heard the Minister's frustration on this. A big deal was made about referring children to Great Ormond Street Hospital or Morgan Stanley hospital. One family have told me their child has been on the waiting list for 12 months. The child has been told they need surgery. The family believe the child can travel.”
“The reports themselves should be sufficient to bring about necessary change, but the Government's agreement to an inquiry is an admission that they are not. The devastating allegation that Harvey Morrison Sherratt was moved to a palliative care list is a really distressing new low for CHI. If it is true, how could anybody in good conscious make that change and not follow up as to how that child was doing? Time and again, there is this bitter irony that we are not talking about thousands of children. We are talking about a small number of children who have been so badly failed. One parent whose child has now passed away said to me that her child became a political football between the egos of consultants.”
“If we think back - other Deputies have referred to this - over the past eight years, we have had at least five reports into the failures within CHI. There was the Dixon report, which now seems to have been disowned by CHI because it was then obviously known as Temple Street. There was the Boston report in 2023. There was the HIQA report, which was commissioned in 2023 and published earlier this year. The Minister referred to the Simon Thomas report and, of course, we are awaiting the Nayagam report. Between the Boston report and the HIQA report, there are 59 recommendations as to how to overhaul services within CHI. Those are recommendations that all arise from the same dysfunction and the lack of proper processes, toxic culture, appalling management and lack of collegiate responsibility.”
“Unfortunately, however, there is a system and there are some decision-makers and clinicians who have failed in their duty. That is what needs to dramatically change. I do not think it is an understatement to say what has happened has been a national scandal. When we look back in ten or 20 years, we will wonder how children have been so badly failed. These are children who have been in the health service for a long time. Their conditions have been recognised for a long time, yet the systems of care have failed so badly. In that context, I welcome the Government's announcement that it will have an inquiry, but I have to ask what it will lead to. To my mind, it is not just about what has happened but what is currently happening within CHI.”
“I am also hugely mindful today that when we talk about spinal services, for some children and young adults it is now too late because of the failures within the system. They carry those questions for the rest of their lives about what could have been if their treatment and care had been different and if those failures had not been present. To those families who are currently fighting for surgery, of whom there are many, there is a bitter irony that the families of these children, some of the sickest children in this State, are having to put up the greatest of fights for appropriate care. That is wrong. While we talk about the patient, the child and the family at the heart of this, we know there are many nurses and doctors who are going day in, day out into a very difficult work environment and trying to do the best by their patient.”
“I very much welcome our having these statements today, and the big breakthrough that has happened over the past week in terms of the agreement to the inquiry. Obviously, we have to see what the exact form of that inquiry will be. We have seen scandal after scandal in spinal services within CHI over many years. It is very welcome that there will now be a proper investigation of that. I know we have had statements before and have paid tribute to the parents of Harvey Morrison Sherratt but in particular, I pay tribute to their immense dignity and incredible strength in dealing with the revelations they have had to encounter over the last fortnight and in the face of their absolutely devastating loss. How badly failed they were by the health system that should have been there for their son has played out so publicly.”
“We need to ensure that psychologists who want to practise in this country can be allowed to train. There have been reductions in child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and primary care.”
“Primary care psychology waiting lists are now up to a staggering 28,000. The figure for those waiting over a year is up to 16,000. In some parts of Dublin, children are waiting 13 years to be seen. That is not a waiting list; it is a non-existent service. My question is on recruitment. When we raise this issue, the Government throws its hands in the air and says the health service cannot get staff. That is not factually correct. There are applications in the Department of Health from those who have practised and trained in the UK and then moved home to Ireland. They are waiting months for a response from the Department. There are issues with regard to the 60-day training period that those who trained abroad are required to complete here. Will that 60-day period be waived or the practice of the person concerned restricted?”
“We have talked about a State construction company and about apprenticeships. I have heard nothing from the Government in that regard. Instead, all too often, the Government throws its hands in the air and says we cannot get the workers. We have brought forward proposals-----”
“What I am hearing from the Taoiseach is that Housing for All was a success, yet we have over 16,000 people registered as homeless. By any measure, the Government's housing policies have been an abject failure. There are unprecedented amounts going into housing, but where are they going? They are going to developers on foot of the policy of this Government in respect of turnkey acquisitions as opposed to building directly. In the context of ideas, we have said many things with regard to housing. We have talked about expanding the Land Development Agency's powers in order that it would not have to go agency by agency but could instead use compulsory purchase orders on a bigger scale. We have also talked about the construction labour supply. We never hear any answers from the Government about how to expand construction labour supply.”
“Will the Taoiseach ensure that with regard to construction labour supply, particularly apprentices, the Government makes good on the promise to pay them the national minimum wage as promised by the Tánaiste three years ago?”
“All the while, the Land Development Agency, the State agency set up to get houses built, is moving at a snail's pace, with just 281 directly-built homes to the end of last year. My question to the Taoiseach regarding the Government's housing plan is: will it reverse course and prioritise direct building on the lands the State owns? Will the Taoiseach ensure that, for the over 4,700 people who are facing notice of termination coming into the winter, the Government will put in place an eviction ban? We know from the Daft report today that the number of rental properties is at an all-time low and people have nowhere to go.”
“Somebody somewhere is laughing, and it is not ordinary people out there, desperately looking for a home. The Department of public expenditure and reform admitted in 2023 that turnkey acquisitions were 21% more expensive than a direct build. Yet, Government reliance on private developers to bail it out of the social and affordable housing crisis has gone up, not down. In budget 2026 the Government spent €270 million in tax cuts to developers in its latest wing-and-a-prayer attempt to get apartments built. These are all massive transfers to developers. It makes a complete laughing stock of any claim to be value for money and, devastatingly, it squeezes the existing availability of homes for purchase that should be within workers' reach.”
“Tomorrow, I have no doubt the Government will try to dazzle the public with announcements of new schemes, funds and extra billions of euro. However, it is not a case of what you spend but how you spend it. The Government has spent enormous amounts of money on the purchase of turn-key apartments that were originally designed to be sold on the open market. Not only is this a massive transfer to developers, but it also squeezes out home buyers desperate to purchase a home. Last year, councils and approved housing bodies, AHBs, directly built a paltry 335 new social homes, yet the public sector spent over €2 billion purchasing over 4,700 new units. It spent an average of €431,000 per unit, which is a whopping 24% increase on the previous year.”
“The fate of hundreds of thousands of young people, workers, families and those with a disability relies on what the Government will publish in its new plan for housing tomorrow. It is not a dramatic statement to say that young people are leaving our shores, workers with good jobs and decent incomes have zero hope of being able to buy, workers of all ages are condemned to a rental market with exorbitant rents, and thousands of families are facing a very uncertain winter and new year because of the Government's heartless changes to rent protections earlier this year. For too many, our country has become one of luck, when you were born, if you have a partner and if your parents were able to help you with a deposit to be able to access a secure, safe and affordable home.”
“I pay tribute to the incredible work being done in the communities in my constituency and across the country, to SAIL, which is celebrating 30 years of its existence this morning, and to the other organisations that work day in, day out for those who use drugs and who are in addiction. They are often not properly recognised and do not get the resources they need. They need to be supported to ensure those who need help get it.”
“I ask the Minister of State to make that direct intervention to ensure the Simon Community facility on Usher's Island, which helps those in addiction and who are homeless, get the care and services they need. To the future, we know what a health approach looks like. We need to make sure that naloxone is available across our communities and that families and pharmacists can easily and readily administer it. We need to make sure testing is widely available. At music festivals during the summer, we saw the HSE promote that, and that was wonderful, but we need to ensure that is much more widely available. In Paris and in other cities across Europe, people can walk in with their drugs - they do not know the potency of them - and get them tested. We know we need to have much greater investment into harm reduction and recovery.”
“However, it is important to say there are very serious concerns about the Department's attitude to the task forces and the groups working at the coalface, a cut in the most recent budget to the task forces and the exclusion of organisations from the steering group on the new national drugs strategy. That is not how it should be done. To its credit, the Department has recognised the need for investment. It is wonderful that it backed the need for the addiction treatment facility in Usher's Island to be built last year and that €37 million of taxpayers' money went into this wonderful 100-bed facility. However, it is unconscionable and shameful that this Government is leaving 37 beds empty this winter for the sake of a small amount of money that could save lives.”
“We know Merchants Quay saved something like 65 lives in the first six months of this year. That is life-changing to those individuals and that needs to be rolled out across the country. In just over a year, we will be marking 30 years since the establishment of the drug and alcohol task forces in this country, a groundbreaking initiative introduced by then Minister, Pat Rabbitte. They have been the backbone of organising service provision and identifying local need in that time. I am proud to be a member of the north inner city drug and alcohol task force, under the great work of Dr. Austin O'Carroll and Brian O'Reilly.”
“I am very conscious that there are so many residents in this city and in communities across the country who are dealing with the impact of dealing on their doorsteps, drug consumption in back lanes and on our streets and all that goes with that. The thing is, however, that those buying and consuming are also suffering a huge shortage of dignity and a lack of safety. That is why we have to have the safe injection centre in Merchants Quay made permanent. That is why we need to have safe consumption centres rolled out in Cork, Limerick and all those other major urban areas. The reality now, of course, is that drug consumption is no longer predominantly about injecting; it is about smoking, and we need to incorporate safe smoking facilities in the future.”
“The reality - the beauty for Ireland - is that there are so many lessons we can learn from the many countries that have adopted decriminalisation, from Portugal to Switzerland to Vancouver and the failures in Canada as to what worked well and what did not. We know from the work of the previous Oireachtas joint committee and from the current work, and we need to build on that, that there should be no legal limit for personal possession. To introduce one would be to undermine the very process of taking away the judgment, profiling and targeting of those who use drugs. Decriminalisation has to be accompanied by a dramatic increase in investment into services. Our public spaces must remain public and safe for everyone to use. We do not accept that large groups should be consuming alcohol in public and the same should apply to drugs.”
“We know from the experience of Portugal and many other countries that a halfway house will not work because as long as gardaí remain involved in stop-and-search operations and spending precious Garda hours prosecuting personal possession in actions that are corrosive to building good community relations, we will make no progress towards a comprehensive health-led approach. I would like now for us to be in a conversation about how we do decriminalisation in Ireland. How do we make it work for individuals and for their communities? That is the work of the Oireachtas joint committee on drug reform that is currently meeting and that will report next June. However, everything that we have heard from Government this year makes me feel that we are going backwards, not forwards.”
“All this year, we have been hearing that we are finally going to get a health diversion scheme but we still have no detail and, crucially, we have no clear sense of whether decriminalisation is part of a future plan. We need the Minister of State to be straight with us because if the health diversion approach is as far as this Government is preparing to go, then she needs to tell us. She needs to tell everybody in the Gallery, and she needs to make it known because there is an expectation that decriminalisation should and must happen in this country. I want to say to her that I do not believe a health diversion approach will work. The citizens’ assembly clearly rejected that approach.”