Sometimes a decision is made that makes one wonder what sort of society we truly live in. Anyone who has been reading my column for the last while will know that there are a few issues that exercise me greatly, and one of these is the area of the drugs crisis. Few things anger me more than the one-eyed political system that has fundamentally failed to tackle the scourge of drugs in our country in any meaningful manner.
Tackling the pushers in one aspect that I have touched on with my column again and again, and I believe the only avenue of potential success open to us is to end poverty and eradicate illiteracy, thereby creating a situation that reduces the demand for empowerment through the drugs trade.
But it is in the area of treatment, however, that I really do despair. Our glorious nation of 4.5 million inhabitants has the dubious distinction of having a paltry 25 detox beds available to those who are at a stage in their addiction that they need the assistance of the health service in a serious way. The recent decision to reassign 10 detox beds in Beaumont Hospital to facilitate the construction of new co-located private units is a disgrace, as the Government’s commitments to increase the number of beds has clearly been completely forgotten.
The National Drugs Strategy states that for our pop- ulation, Ireland needs between 130 and 150 detox beds, and indeed commitments were given that the number would be increased to 50 by the end of last year. But now, instead of increasing the number of detox beds in Beaumont Hospital, the existing beds are to be moved to make way for the new private unit. Thus, our most marginalised of citizens are to be removed from the picture to make space for the most right-wing policy ever to emanate from the Department of Health. Our nation needs a proper response to the drugs crisis, yet Liam Duffy, the CEO of Beaumont Hospital can only inform me that any plans for increasing the number of beds for detox would have to be part of a service plan and would have to be linked in with the Health Service Executive’s plans for development. It’s bureaucratic buck-passing to a maddening degree!
The Department of Health’s priorities in this regard are simply scandalous. It is time for the Minister for Health Mary Harney and John Curran, the junior minister with responsibility for the national drugs strategy, to state now when the number of detox beds – not only in Beaumont Hospital, but in Dublin as a whole and throughout the State – are to be increased. Any refusal to tackle this issue will only condemn our society to face a growing crisis in the future – a future that isn’t far off.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is a primary school principal in the Sheriff Street area of Dublin, a member of the Labour Party, and formerly Dublin’s Deputy Lord Mayor. His column appears every week in Metro Eirean
