Mr. Karl Ducque:

I thank everyone for their work and input but it is all about the implementation. I was involved as an expert in the citizens' assembly. I got to meet the assembly members and got to see the process first-hand. We opened their eyes up to the trauma-informed approach, the importance of separating the person from the addiction, looking at why a person took drugs and seeing that it is all based on trauma. I have been involved with task forces and national drugs strategies over the years and have seen them not being implemented. I have seen the number of recommendations that have come from them but years down the line, they still have not been implemented. I would really love to see this being implemented, a health-led approach to treating people in addiction with compassion and care. Section 3, for me, has to go. I know from working with young people that it effects them so much. It is crazy. I was talking to a probation officer last night about a young person who had come in, at 20 years of age, on a first charge under section 3. What effect will that have? If he applies for a job now, that section 3 offence is not going to come off his record. If he is Garda vetted, it will be there. The suspended sentence does not change that.