I concur with everything my colleague said. I have a knot in my stomach all day even thinking about talking about dual diagnosis. When I first was elected, the first thing I brought to this House was conversations on dual diagnosis. I had briefings in the audiovisual room. Mainly, my experience of dual diagnosis has been through two avenues. One of them is working in addiction services since I was 17 years old, for the last 20-odd years, and working in the homeless services, again, since I was 17 years of age;. The…

It is not.

We need to resist confusing dual diagnosis with other types of co-morbidities or other types of stuff where there are two diagnoses. We know what we are referring to when we are talking about addiction and mental health. The problem is, we do not have a situation where people are dying regularly because they have other types of co-morbidities. There is a very specific issue here on the ground in practice where people are not cared for when they present with the two. If somebody just had an addiction issue, nobody i…

Well, that is not what this is.

Is the Minister of State saying that the dual diagnosis staff employed by the HSE in the past few years, one of whose names I have in my head because I have met the staff often, do not understand their job as she does? We meet dual diagnosis staff all the time in relation to the work we do in here or our work on drugs policy, and we note that they all understand the service as involving no wrong door and believe we need to develop dual diagnosis services. That is in the context of addiction and mental health. Is th…

What I am saying is that the Minister of State is conflating dual diagnosis with intellectual disability-----

-----when we are talking about addiction. She is giving an example of dual diagnosis but then saying she has services for dual diagnosis. Therefore, her Department must be able to define it. If Keltoi is a service for dual diagnosis, then the Minister of State understands exactly what dual diagnosis is. What I am suggesting would not make the Bill confusing at all; it would align with all the work being done on the ground. I am quite confused by what has been said.

It is great if the Bill looks after all of them, including gambling-----

Nobody is saying-----

I am astounded at the defensiveness in the Chamber today. I did not come in expecting that. I came in expecting some understanding, compassion and awareness.

No, it is fair.

Nobody is turned away if they have gambling and mental health issues. That does not happen because it is very specifically "substance use" that sees people being turned away, as they are seen as affected. From all the years I worked with people who gambled, the reason it was one of the most dangerous addictions was that it did not knock people out. Gamblers do not fall asleep and have a little respite. Other substances are different. Doctors do not like dealing with somebody affected physically. They do not like th…

The Minister of State is very welcome. I raise an issue that has come past my desk a couple of times over the last few weeks. There seems to be an increased pressure on families, especially vulnerable families, some of them headed up by women, in relation to rent arrears. In one of two cases of rent arrears, one for €12,000 and another for €10,000, the person has been put out onto the street with their family. They have been in the house over 42 years. A figure of €12,000 is a drop in the ocean compared to the fact…

The letter was issued on council-headed paper.

My hope is that it is an anomaly. My thoughts were that it is an automated system that does not pick up the differences, but it is from the law agent in the council. I do not have the other one in front of me that is from South Dublin County Council, where there was a similar situation. The person who was a child occupier was then banned from going on the housing list when they were in school and obviously could not pay rent. It is clear that an anomaly is happening. I am hopeful this can be addressed simply, witho…

I welcome the Bill and am happy to support Senator Clonan. Senator McCarthy raised the areas of marginalisation and addiction. Something we need to consider is marginalisations within marginalisations within marginalisations. We do have a growing and ageing population of people who were drastically impacted by the heroin epidemics of the eighties and nineties and have acquired disabilities over time. They are often unseen when it comes to disability advocacy. We have people in our prison and homeless systems who ha…

I second the amendment.

I did not initially have any questions but I had similar concerns as others that were previously raised. I did not have any additional questions until the Minister’s contribution. My questions can probably be answered quite easily without me having to look at submitting future amendments on Report Stage. This may see seem like a side point compared to the conversation here today, but I ask the Minister to bear with me. The Minister mentioned references as an example of something that may be protected; for example, …

I get a sense that the general feeling in the Chamber is not one of support for the Government's amendment. Sometimes, listening to Members from the Government parties speak, one can tell there is not an energy behind wanting to delay something. That can be felt in how Members present their contributions on a topic. I can sense that here today. I encourage colleagues opposite not to provide tellers for the vote on the amendment. Beyond the substance of the issue we are discussing, which I will get to, we all, wheth…

Before I make two points on the budget, I want to bookend my contribution with something to frame it and keep in mind. Earlier I read a document produced by the Parliamentary Budget Office's economic modelling and policy costing unit that looks at the impact of the budget, including the announced increases in current spending of €6.1 billion, capital spending of €2 billion and a tax package of €1.3 billion. It analyses how the changes to taxes and social welfare policy announced as part of budget 2026 will affect h…