Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the other committee members for allowing me to come in a little earlier today. I appreciate them facilitating that. I particularly thank Ms Murphy for sharing her story. I also thank the other witnesses for sharing their stories, and for the work they are doing and the lives they are helping change within their respective organisations. If we take a step back we can think about how we have not, for some unknown reason, tied addiction and mental health together in these services. Perhaps it is for political reasons. It seems insane, when we know about the percentages and number of people with addiction issues who also suffer from mental health complications and difficulties. It is mind boggling that we are having this conversation and only now getting to the stage of having a national strategy to deal with this. However, as has already been said, many of the witnesses have been dealing informally with this undercurrent for years. When I listen to all of them, it is mind boggling that we are only now getting to a plan.

This is not a question about whether the organisations agree with decriminalisation. However, there is a reference to the fact that we still have a political system and some political leaders who are very much of the abolition mind-set. There are also strategies like Just Say No, and quite hard stances on the war on drugs approach. Will we ever get to fulfil the full plan, the full potential and the full implementation of a meaningful dual diagnosis process or system in Ireland, if those people continue to be criminalised? I am struggling to see how we will be able to bring so many people with us, and away from that stigma. This also applies to people working in the medical sector, if we continue to criminalise people. Our current criminal system is allegedly about harm reduction but that is not necessarily always the case because we still have criminal sanctions. Can this process ever fully work if the legal system continues as it currently does?