Mal O'Hara (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

My apologies. The Traveller committee is reliant on me to be quorate at 10.30 a.m., so I thank the Chair and other members for allowing me to jump up the speaking list.

I will go straight into my three primary questions. As I have said at nearly every committee meeting, 218 people died of drugs in 2020 in Northern Ireland where I am from and 213 died in 2021. The UK’s overall data obscures the picture somewhat, but our drug death rate in the North is 115 per million. Unfortunately, I will get on a train later today and see exactly the same thing. The situation is not being addressed in the North in any way like we are trying to do here.

My first question will be a quick one for the panel. There has been something of a détente at this committee on the grounds that, if we do not have the right services in place, then drug decriminalisation is not a good idea. I am emphatically of the opinion that we need to move straight ahead on drug decriminalisation. I would like a sense of the witnesses’ opinions on this. If services are not as shiny, fantastic and holistic as we need them to be, should that inhibit us in moving on decriminalisation?