Sinn Féin Councillor Derren Ó Brádaigh has raised concern over what he calls “the lack of any real urgency by government to get a handle on the escalating problem of nitrous oxide abuse.”
The Councillor also noted that “exorbitant profits are being made outside of the intended purpose for which they are manufactured.”
Cllr Ó Brádaigh said he tabled a motion in 2021 calling on the Council to report on the level of cannisters being lifted by their public realm work crews, and findings from data collated between August 2021 and 2022, “clearly evidenced that the problem was countywide.”
The Councilor pointed to a recent HSE report which shows that 22% of young people attending their adolescent service admitted to experimenting with nitrous oxide, reflecting an increase of 175% compared to 2021, and cited remarks by a neurology specialist at the Mater Hospital who warned of an increase in the number of patients suffering severe nerve damage after inhaling nitrous oxide gas.
“The Council Parks Superintendent has stated in responses that I have received, that finds of larger cannisters of the substance have been found in large quantities, with finds of hundreds of the smaller silver bullets at some locations also.”
The Sinn Féin Councillor also raised concern about the enviromental impact of the cannisters, saying that resident litter pick groups are “often unsure of how to dispose of them.”
“There doesn’t seem to be a day that I don’t come across these large ‘fast gas’ cannisters discarded in my own locality, along the canal cycle track, when participating in community clean-ups or simply walking across the green or through the park.”
“Many of my colleagues have continued to raise this issue with both council officials and more importantly in the Dáil. My own Dublin Mid-West party colleague Mark Ward TD has submitted legislation to the Bills Office in the Oireachtas to regulate the sale of nitrous oxide to the industries and commercial operators that use this product,” he said.
“It is about time that Gardaí were given the ability to tackle this problem head-on, where they come across individuals within the community in possession of this substance, without any obvious explanation for having it in the first instance.”