Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is very welcome that the HSE and the Departments of Health and Justice have said there needs to be a health lead. I do not want to be cynical, but there is a lot of lip service paid to all of this, to be honest. When we scratch the surface, we find people are being criminalised for personal drug use. That is not only a waste of time, but bringing people through the courts system is criminal in itself. If somebody has a problem with alcohol, why would we want to criminalise that person? I do not understand why for the past 25 years Governments keep criminalising people, because it is a perpetual cycle and it does not work. This debate will probably be outside the remit of this committee, but we need to go beyond-----