Dr. Cian Ó Concubhair:

Managing public expectations is really important because there is a risk of backlash and making politicians anxious about decisions, as we saw in the Oregon experience where there has been an effort by the elected representatives to undo a popular vote, which is a really good example of the kinds of unintended consequences or risks we should be very conscious of. Maintaining or encouraging local authorities to prohibit public consumption is a smart way but it is not just that.

The Deputy's question for Mr. Glynn on the stop and search powers is related to this and it may be a big problem in Ireland. In the UK, specifically England and Wales, and for very specific historical reasons, no less the fallout from the murder of Stephen Lawrence and other things, they have a very sophisticated conversation at a political level about stop and search powers and about police powers in general that does not exist here.

Politicians are perhaps one of the few groups who would raise this as an issue. There is no scrutiny or oversight of An Garda Síochána in terms of its use of powers. If it collects any data about how it uses these powers, it does not publicise them. My understanding is the An Garda Síochána does not gather data, so we have no idea what it is currently doing with its stop-and-search powers. My suspicion is that Ireland is closer to Scotland, where the rates of stop-and-search powers used were far higher than in England or Wales. As Mr. Glynn said, if you do not have oversight - both politically and by the relevant oversight mechanisms like the Policing Authority - these powers will end up being overused. That is the case, especially if there is not a political commitment. The police are political in their own way. If police leaders are not committed to reducing excessive use of stop-and-search powers - there have never been any indications from An Garda Síochána that there is a desire to reduce its use of these powers in particular communities - one of the consequences that might be missed would be an effort to engage with that. I refer to police-community relations, particularly in the most marginalised areas, because these powers are not being used in Ranelagh or Donnybrook. They are overwhelmingly being used to target marginalised communities. A conversation in that regard needs to be had.