Independent TD Mr Tony Gregory has accused the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, of failing to take decisive action against the drinks industry, despite the Minister's complaint that alcohol abuse was Ireland's biggest drug problem.
Mr Gregory was speaking at the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, where this year's theme is "Drugs and Alcohol in Irish Society - Use and Abuse".
He said Mr Martin was "satisfied with the soft option of awareness campaigns and a promise of a new code of practice to regulate alcohol advertising sometime in the future".
Meanwhile, the drinks industry, with its powerful advertising resources, was being allowed to dictate policy, he said. Young people and public health in general were suffering as a consequence.
Mr Gregory said half the patients at St James's Hospital in Dublin were there because of smoke-related illnesses.
"If there is a gateway drug then it is most likely to be nicotine . . . it is surely a nonsense to criminalise a person for smoking one weed while the State is an active participant in the sale of another by virtue of the huge income it derives from tobacco duties," he said.
Mr Fergus McCabe, a member of the National Drugs Strategy Team and an inner-city community worker with the Neighbourhood Youth Project in Dublin, said the possibility of providing "heroin on prescription" for long-term users should be explored.
He stressed this strategy was meant for addicts for whom all other strategies had failed and that the view was his own.
"These people have tried methadone, they've tried going drug-free. It has all failed and they're still a risk to themselves and society," he said.
Mr McCabe also said the possession of small amounts of illegal drugs for personal use should no longer be a criminal offence.
Ms Marie Richardson, a probation and welfare officer based in Co Limerick, said a legacy of heavy drinking in Ireland had caused damage that ran through generations of families.
"We are so spiritually bankrupt that the only right of passage that fathers can offer their sons is to take them for a pint," Ms Richardson said.
She said there was a "disturbing corruption" in parts of the advertising industry that produced advertisements for alcoholic beverages that portrayed drinking as a sensual activity.
"How does that compare to people leaving the pub and throwing up in the laneway? How does that compare to alcoholic incontinence?" Ms Richardson asked.
Father Peter McVerry SJ said Ireland was failing its drug addicts by adopting a "maintenance solution" to their problems.
He suggested this was because the cost of providing residential treatment for a drug user - about £1,000 a week - compared unfavourably to the price of methadone at only £1 or £2 a week.
"For a society to reduce its sights and settle for a maintenance solution to the problems which drug users face is to fail them as persons and to give up on its own responsibilities to very damaged and sometimes very difficult citizens," Father McVerry said.
He said there were still not enough residential treatment places, even though the number of places had doubled in recent years. "To go from about 20 to about 40 places, with a heroin using population of over 13,000, is still hopelessly inadequate."
Addicts had to wait too long for treatment, currently three months or longer, he said.
"Some years ago the former Eastern Health Board promised treatment on demand by the end of the year. Today that promise is still unrealised," Father McVerry said.
The school continues until Friday.
