Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also want to talk about recommendation 17, which is about the decriminalisation of the possession of drugs for personal use. Speaking to people in the community, family members, and even people in Leinster House, there seems to be fear and confusion about what exactly this is. For example, decriminalisation of personal drug use does not mean that a criminal act carried out to obtain drugs is decriminalised. There seems to be fear about that. Work needs to be done on that. Any act that is criminal, irrespective of what it is carried out for, is still criminal. That needs to get out to the public. Fear about that is coming back from ordinary members of the community and even from talking to people in here who are not on the citizens' assembly and asked me questions about it.

There is also an issue regarding personal use in public spaces. This was another issue that was brought up with me regarding a fear of increased antisocial behaviour or maybe people hanging around. It is happening already but it was about an increase in that and that it could lead to more fear and intimidation as well. Was any of this discussed as part of the citizens' assembly's discussions? As I only have four minutes, I will ask my other questions on recommendation 17. I know the question was asked on what personal use is and we have to come up with legislation on this. The question is if it is a monetary amount, a weight and what is personal use. I mention that piece about public spaces as well. Was this discussed?