Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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To follow up on that, Mr. Russoniello stated "Decriminalisation is an important component of a public health approach to drugs, but it should not act alone." Does this mean he believes an increase in services is needed in tandem with decriminalisation for it to be successful or do these services need to be in place first? Mr. Russoniello also said that if you were to wait for services, you might not proceed with decriminalisation. Services are key. We must have the funding of services so if we introduce decriminalisation we look at the whole approach. Mr. Russoniello mentioned that the kickback was both political and from policing and that the police were never on board with this. Our police force, to its credit, will implement whatever legislation comes in. I do not think it would ever be an issue here, but obviously the force is part of the conversation. Going back to that point, from Mr. Russoniello's experience and looking back at where he came from, there is the decriminalisation side, the policing side, the health-led approach side and then services. Will he comment on trying to tie all of them in?