Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Regarding that step-down facility in Cork, I am from Cork and it is not so much the local authority that opposes it as the members of the local authority, for political reasons. There is a difference, believe me. Senator Black talked about people who go into recovery and emerge from it and mentioned that one third end up relapsing. Very little research has been done on the reasons that they relapse. The reasons are very broad and they vary. People can relapse when they come out of a rehabilitation or residential centre and they face one of the major obstacles, which is housing. In many cases, they have no option but to go back into homeless shelters where drug use is prevalent and that contributes to them relapsing. There are many other issues, but I agree there is very little research.

The issue I wish to discuss is drug addiction within the prisons. A total of 85% of women and 70% of men in the prison population have an addiction. Why is that? I believe it is because we have a system in which addicts are criminalised. Over 80% of all drug convictions in the State - it I believe it is 86% but I am open to correction - are convictions for being caught with drugs for personal use. If we addressed that, what impact would it have on penal reform and sentencing?

I have a follow-up question to that. When one gets a drug conviction, it is a conviction for life. Even if those convicted go into rehabilitation, come out clean and never reoffend, they have drug convictions hanging over them for the rest of their lives, which can have very severe consequences for those individuals for the rest of their lives. What role do spent convictions have in this regard, particularly for those individuals who have addictions? This Government and the previous Government have talked about spent convictions a lot but we have seen very little action in this regard. I believe spent convictions have a huge role to play in penal reform and sentencing. The goal should be to try to avoid a prison sentence. However, if somebody is convicted, I do not believe that the conviction should stay with him or her for life. One gets a conviction and does one's time and punishment. Part of this is being rehabilitated back into the community. It is counterproductive on the one hand to try to rehabilitate those convicted back into society to stop them from reoffending but, on the other, to tell them they must carry convictions for the rest of their days. The latter is just wrong. What are the witnesses' opinions on this?