Saoirse Brady

And this has worked really well and has saved an absolute fortune in the States where it has been done well and has worked

Well, we really welcome that legislation and we really want to see it put in place.

It hasn't come into force yet.

And I think what the key is there that, yes, somebody is serving a sentence in the community.

They're not going to prison, but that those wraparound supports are in place.

And we know that they are going to put in place a bail support scheme for women in particular.

At the moment, there are targeted programs for rehabilitation in terms of addiction for men in prison.

It deals with about 45 men a year.

But nothing for women.

We really need to get to the bottom of that.

There shouldn't be drugs in prison, but there are.

The reality is there are and people are getting them.

And we've seen that when we've seen some overdoses, some very serious overdoses in the last couple of years.

The Irish Prison Service are trying to stop drugs coming into prison.

You know, they have upgraded some of the nets that they have over prison yards, etc.

But drugs are still getting in.

People still need the support that they need.

And yes, maybe they're not getting access to it, but that is not the healthiest way for somebody to come off drugs.

And it means that when they come out again, if they haven't had the support and made that decision themselves and had the therapy, the addiction counselling, etc.,

they may return to drugs if they have no other supports.