I welcome Daniel Malone. I raise an issue this morning that is often behind closed doors, namely, women facing addiction in our community. These are women who are trying to hold their families together. Too often, when we speak about addiction, we picture a man sleeping rough or somebody who is visibly in crisis. There are many women, many of them mothers, who are suffering quietly behind curtains, terrified to ask for help because, in doing so, they put their children at risk of being taken into care. That means they will lose their family or be judged by society. Therefore, they try not to seek help.

A recent piece by the Tabor Group highlighted that one of the biggest barriers for mothers accessing addiction treatment is the fear that social services will intervene and become involved if they admit that they have a problem. Therefore the problem gets worse and they do not seek help. If you can imagine a woman that reaches a point where she realises she needs help, perhaps through intervention from her family or whatever, but instead of reaching out for support, she feels fear - fear of stigma, shame and being labelled a bad mother. Many of these women are already carrying burdens of trauma, domestic violence and poverty.

A recent Trinity study showed that women experience addiction differently and often face deeper stigma than men in seeking treatment. That is from Trinity College Dublin. As we have found in the likes of Tiglin, Cuan Mhuire, Coolmine and the Tabor Group, when recovery happens it changes lives. When trauma-informed services are involved, it means that family care and family support can be provided and the women who seek help can be given all the supports necessary. No woman should ever feel that asking for help should cost her everything, including her children. We need a system that lets people with a problem come forward and be supported and does not deepen the silence. More importantly, we need more compassion in how we talk about addiction in this country. Behind all of the statistics that I have mentioned, there is a human being and a mother who is trying her best to bring up her kids and now wants to face her addiction.