Ms Anna Quigley:

I will pick up on what Dr. Keenan said. The statistics are clear in respect of problematic and injecting drug users and drug-related harm such as HIV, hepatitis C, and hepatitis E. All of those have clearly gone down. I do not think there is any dispute on that point. Therefore, for the most marginalised group of drug users, the evidence is clear.

I repeat the point that no one has ever claimed that decriminalisation alone is going to solve the problem. We have to keep coming back to that point. If we do not put in place the services then we will not see any difference. It should be noted that Portugal is similar to Ireland in that the country has gone through a major recession. The people there are honest about saying that the level of services they have now is not at the level of services they had previously. All these factors need to be taken on board. No one is claiming that decriminalisation on its own is going to be the change that makes all the difference. However, the overall shift in the approach to policy is the key. That is what decriminalisation is about. It is about shifting from criminal to public health. It does not hold that we will solve all the problems but simply that we will deal with the problems in a different framework.