Senator Mary Fitzpatrick: Last week, I had the privilege of leading a delegation from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use to a conference in Reykjavík, Iceland, that was organised by Planet Youth. At the conference, we heard from dozens of expert speakers, policymakers and practitioners from more than 20 countries on five continents. The theme of the conference was building sustainable communities and using prevention to protect young people and ensure they reach their full potential. It was held in Iceland, which, back in the 1990s, had among the highest substance abuse rates among adolescents. Today, it ranks among the lowest in Europe. It achieved this by developing what is called the Icelandic prevention model, which is based on real-time data, strong parental engagement and investment in youth services, but most importantly, a shared social commitment that childhood is worth protecting.

Prevention does work, as has been proven in Iceland and other communities, if it is early, sustained, evidence-led and rooted in communities. We need to recognise in Ireland that we have some real red flags. It is not just about alcohol and weed anymore. When we look at what is going on with our young people, there are issues around vaping, nitrous oxide, digital exposure, porn, gambling, excessive screen time and sleep deprivation. Youth mental health in Ireland ranks quite low. One in three 15-year-olds in Ireland reports low life satisfaction, and youth suicide in Ireland is among the highest. We have a lot of red flags.

We have also done a lot of great work. I have been involved in youth services for almost 20 years as the founding director of a youth service and a justice diversion programme. Prevention does work. I believe we need the Minister of State with responsibility for young people and education to come to the House. This is not just a drugs issue; this is a public health and a child protection issue. We need the Government to respond to that, to support teachers, youth workers, parents and communities and to provide them with the tools to ensure that every young person reaches their full potential and lives a healthy life....

...Senator Garret Ahearn: I thank all the Senators who have made contributions this morning.

Senator Fitzpatrick spoke about her recent visit with the drugs committee to Iceland. A lot of the stuff learned in Iceland was learned in the 1990s. They had the highest rate of drugs use in the 1990s and implemented what was called an Icelandic prevention model that has now led to the lowest rate. It is obviously a model that we should be looking at and seeing if we can implement here. In particular, she spoke about the youth, mental health and the red flags that we can see in our country at the moment. It is right across the country. Young adults are vulnerable to this, and we need to do more to support them. It is not in one particular area in the country, but rather we can see it in every single area. We can see it in sports clubs nowadays, which was never the case 15 or 20 years ago. There is almost a normalisation of it. We have children who are in vulnerable or potentially vulnerable situations who need to be protected. Anything we can do as legislators, we need to do. It is a good opportunity to bring the Minister of State with responsibility for drugs and young people in here to have a debate about that and what we can do to make decisions, not reacting to the situation but actually being proactive in what possibly could be a very serious situation for our young people....

Senator McCarthy spoke about women in addiction, an issue that is not spoken about much. As a result of his involvement in Tiglin, he has a keen knowledge of the area. There is a stigma with women in addiction. Everyone can understand the fear. There is nothing scarier than losing your kids. If you are expected to voluntarily tell someone that you have a problem with drinking, drugs or gambling and you fear that you are going to lose your young children, it is very hard to do that. We need to change that stigma. We need to do an awful lot more. There is a wonderful women's refuge facility in Clonmel called Cuan Saor. It was opened by Michael D. Higgins in 2000. It does phenomenal work but this goes beyond addiction. Domestic violence is another issue. There is more to it. When people create stigma about people who are looking for help, they do not fully understand why that person is in that situation. It behoves all of us to try to change that stigma, to try to help and to support people to recover. In his own line of work, the Senator sees the amazing achievement of people recovering from addictions like that and the benefits this has for their young children.

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