Mr. Cathal O'Regan:

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach, and I will be brief. I am not speaking specifically about the viewpoint of the gardaí, but a number of stakeholders in the room who had, as you might expect, concerns about legalisation. I am including medical representative associations and others who are on the record as being against legalisation. What a lot of them said was that they were concerned about was a version of decriminalisation that would be tantamount to legalisation. That means one thing and it sends out a very clear public signal about the State's approach to drugs whereas there is another form of decriminalisation which does not liberalise drug use but it changes the way the State responds. There was a broad degree of consensus across most of the stakeholders who spoke, including those who are against legalisation, that simply criminalising a person for having a drug issue is not the solution and there is scope within the way the State responds to change from the status quo to a more health-led response.

As we saw across the political system when we published our findings, there is a large degree of consensus in support of a health-led approach. The design of that is one that is up for grabs but as long as it is not interpreted that the citizens' assembly is recommending something that liberalises or legalises drug use and that it is recommending a different version of decriminalisation, which is a health-led response, I believe we will find that there is a considerable level of support across society.