Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about this. I am opposed to the setting up of a citizens' assembly, because we are the elected people in here to represent the people out there. Hand-picking a group of people, as the Government did in previous citizens' assemblies, is not fair. When one thinks about it, one of those assemblies which was very important did not include any representatives from 11 counties, County Kerry being one of them. I am afraid of the Government setting up an assembly here, where there is no representative from a place as expansive as County Kerry, which has a drug problem.

I am greatly worried that this is an orchestrated move to legalise drugs, instead of criminalising them. The story is bad enough as it is. They are in every small town and village in our county. Instead of the Government doing something to help the people who have a problem and who develop mental health issues, we see the hames that is being made of the mental health issues in County Kerry with south Kerry and north Kerry child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and all over Tipperary and every other place. There is no proper psychologist or psychiatrist to deal with the young people who are developing problems. It is no wonder they resort to drugs to find out something different. This is totally and absolutely wrong.

In France, a citizens' assembly was set up and, before it went halfway in its deliberations, they all walked out of it. It was the same with the Brexit citizens' assembly which was widely criticised for not being representative of the population. Again I say, we are the elected Members in here. We have been elected by the people. If we do not do our job, we will be found out and told that at the next election, when we go before the people on our record. These people the Government will appoint here inside can walk into anonymity the minute the citizens' assembly is finished. They will probably come up with some idea and the citizens' assembly will be held accountable, regardless of what it comes forward with. That is what the Government will follow then. It is only a cop out by the Government. The Government is made up of the people who are elected. Deputy Naughton is a Minister of State and she and the other Ministers have a duty to respond to the issues that are arising out there. Drugs are a big problem, but to leave it up to a citizens' assembly is totally and absolutely wrong. It is too costly and will not be properly representative of the people who are affected. I am calling on the Government to forget about it and deal with the issue itself, if it is Government enough to do that. If it is not, it should pull out and leave it to someone else.

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