Minister of State with responsibility for Primary Care Róisín Shortall is developing proposals under the Misuse of Drugs legislation to introduce stricter controls on benzodiazepines and an initiative to tackle overprescribing.


She made the announcement following the launch of a report on a pilot project to tackle benzodiazepine use in Ballymum on June 21.

Ranking the issue of the abuse of benzodiazepines as “a priority” of hers, Minister Shortall said she intended to introduce an initiative soon to tackle overprescribing.

“We need to look more closely at prescribing patterns for benzodiazepines in order to identify those areas that are out of line with best practice,” said the Minister. “I’ve asked the HSE to look at this and report back to me.”