Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for attending the committee today. I also welcome his appointment, which, as others have said, is hugely important. As a member of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, I welcome, in particular, the fact that the Minister of State is now in charge of developing a national drugs strategy which is to commence after 2016. I welcome the initiatives he has spoken about on prevention and education and the allocation of resources in that regard.

Coming back to the national drugs strategy, the Minister of State has given a welcome commitment to examine policy and practice in other jurisdictions and to identify any evidence-based approaches which might be considered in an Irish context as part of that strategy. The Minister of State will be aware that the Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality is undertaking a review of drug policy. As our Chairman, Deputy David Stanton, said, some members of the committee went to Portugal and looked at the Portuguese approach, which treats drug addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue. I think we are all conscious from this morning's earlier presentation of the huge harm caused to health and, indeed, life by substance misuse. We also have to be conscious that our most recent survey by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol shows that 25% of Irish people have taken cannabis at least once. There is clearly a huge prevalence of the use of currently illegal drugs. The abuse or misuse of substances by some people is a major health issue. What is the best evidence-based approach for us to adopt? Will the Minister of State, in his development of the drugs strategy, be looking, for example, at the Portuguese approach and that much clearer health-based model rather than the criminal justice model?