Senator Gerard P. Craughwell - speech from 21 May 2019
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Transcript
Goera maith agat, how does one follow that? A number of my colleagues have mentioned things like drug addiction and one has mentioned the A&E problem. I had the misfortune a couple of weeks ago to have to spend the best part of 24 hours in an A&E department with a relative who is a fairly frequent visitor to the place because of chronic illness. health. And I cannot begin to recount the distress of that girl sitting in the A&E, surrounded by people who were, I suppose, substance abusers. Some of them extremely drunk, some of them high on drugs. And surely to God, A&E is not the place for such people. Surely to God, we would change the entire system if we had a proper place for people who were suffering from abuse. It is heartbreaking. If anybody was sitting there with this girl I was with and with other people who were sitting around us who were really, really sick and watching the queue on one occasion being restarted because one of the substance abusers had ran out of the place and a number of staff had to follow in order to bring that person back in order that she could be fitted back into the queue. I cannot begin to tell you the hurt that was felt by the people sitting around me. We really have to tackle the issue of substance abuse. And by the way, there is not a family, I think, in the country that does not have somebody who suffers from some form of substance abuse. And at the end of the day, we have to tackle this problem. They are crowding A&Es all over the place. I've had the misfortune myself with my heart to be in A&E down in Vincent several times and to find the place full to the rafters. It really is desperate. One final point, Cair, look, I'd ask everybody in this house to adjoin with me today and condemn those who are going around cutting down posters belonging to candidates who are running for the local elections and national elections. At the end of the day, these posters cost a lot of money and it's a vicious act by anybody to do it. I'll leave it at that. Thank you, Cair.