We hear harrowing and heartbreaking testimonials on a daily basis from patients who are enduring long delays in accident and emergency departments in many parts of the country. I recently read with interest that the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, is planning to introduce a number of measures with a view to alleviating the current pressures on accident and emergency departments throughout the country. Some would say that is long overdue.

One of the measures being talked about is a proposal to reduce the €100 fee for attending injury units to €75. It is hoped that will encourage more people to use injury units rather than going to accident and emergency departments in different parts of the country. I for one would be in favour of that. As the Leader knows, there are 11 injury units located the length and breadth of the country, one of which is located in my county, Monaghan. It is an excellent service and the staff there are doing a fantastic job. They can treat many illnesses, from a sprain to a scald or broken bone. They can do X-rays, sutures and many things for which people tend to go to accident and emergency departments.

I am glad to report that the numbers using the facility in Monaghan are on the increase, but I am disappointed to learn that its opening hours are the most restricted of the 11 units in the country. It is something which needs to be examined. I would like the Leader to confirm that the admission fee for these units will be reduced by €25. He might tell us when these measures will be introduced because we all know many of our citizens are suffering needlessly in corridors and on trolleys the length and breadth of the country as they try to seek treatment for their illnesses.

I want to support what has been said about the drugs issue, in particular the insight given by Senator Ruane about her own experience. Every small town in Ireland is dealing with this issue, as is Dublin. My area is no exception.

It is worth mentioning the late PJ Blake, who died in Letterkenny and was buried this week. He was a town councillor, and all his life he was an advocate for the need to tackle the drugs issue in our small and regional towns. One of his main concerns was the fact that the Garda resources to deal with drugs had been greatly depleted, and that remains the case. Gardaí simply do not have the resources, particularly in rural areas, to deal with this problem. It is now the biggest problem for young people in small rural towns. It is affecting our schools, including one incident in my town in recent weeks which is a cause of concern for all of us. We should have a debate on that issue.

I had a discussion this week with the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Finian McGrath, who has advised me that the Irish Wheelchair Association made no application to his Department for funding to keep the Cuisle centre open. Councillor Tony Ward, who is a member of the HSE forum in Roscommon, has raised this issue. It is time that the Irish Wheelchair Association was called to account on this issue and I appeal to it to apply to the Department of Health and HSE for the required funding because I have been informed that if an application was to be made the Minister for Health would look favourably on it. It is time for truth and clarity to be brought to bear on this issue.

It is timely that we have a debate in the Chamber on the health impacts of drug use and misuse in this country. We have had many debates in recent weeks on the Garda and criminal justice response to drugs in our communities. Any time I have had the opportunity to participate in those debates, I always refer to the need to address these issues from a health and not a criminal justice perspective.

My home town in Drogheda is in the grip of a criminal feud to do with the supply of drugs. Very little attention is given to those who are in the grip of problem drug use, and I shall give an example. We are about to open a refurbished HSE drugs facility in Drogheda over the coming weeks. The reality is that there are very few staff to populate that centre and we have no outreach workers in the town of Drogheda, which is the biggest town in the State that is not a city. We do not have the outreach workers. The Red Door project is an excellent community-based service but it has not received an increase in funding in recent years. There was one small increase due to lottery funding some years ago but there has been no increase in its core funding. We are in the grip of a drugs feud, or I could describe it as a drugs war, but the State leaves those who are impacted by this on the long finger for treatment and for support. It is simply not on. We can create all of these new facilities, or refurbished facilities, that we want or need, but if we do not populate them with expert staff and outreach workers to deal with the issues on the ground, then it is an absolute waste of time and State resources and money.

I must mention the situation that the school secretaries across the State find themselves in this week. Agreement was reached that school secretaries who are in dispute with the Department of Education and Skills and who are members of Fórsa would engage with the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, on the basis that they could address the long-standing concerns they have around parity with school secretaries who are public servants, those employed with the education and training boards and those employed by the Department of Education and Skills. School secretaries who are employed by school boards of management through schools' annual ancillary grants are receiving as little as €12,500 per annum and must sign on come the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays. This is simply not on. These people do the work of public servants but do not have the same benefits in pension entitlements and so on. They went to the WRC this week and despite the fine words of the Minister for Education and Skills in the Dáil in October, when the school secretaries decided that they would suspend their industrial action on the basis that they would go to the WRC, they have been offered a miserable 1.5% pay increase. It is a miserable offer when one considers that private sector pay increases this year-----

The Senator has gone one minute over.

-----are expected to be nearly 4% across the board. It is time the Minister, Deputy McHugh, got real and gave school secretaries the respect they deserve, re-engaged with them, and ensured they are placed on a scale with the public servants in the education and training boards, and with those who are paid by the Department.

Hear, hear.