Mr. Séamus Boland:

It is important that I should have highlighted that some of the 67% could have also been charged with possession of drugs for supply, because everyone who is charged with a drug trafficking offence is also charged with simple possession. That is the process. It is a section 3 charge. A drug trafficker will also get a simple possession charge. A good percentage of those could also have been drug trafficking cases. From my analysis of the data, the adult caution scheme is being applied. When I was at the rank of inspector, I spent two years as the prosecuting inspector at a local District Court. While cannabis was not included in the schedule of offences for the adult caution scheme at that time, anyone who appears before a court will have legal representation and I remember many cases where people appeared before the court for public order offences, for instance, or minor theft offences, which are included in the adult caution scheme, and one of the first submissions of every defence lawyer to the sitting judge was that the client had not benefited from the adult caution scheme. They would ask whether it had been considered and whether the client could benefit. All those cases were referred back after legal advice and a decision was made and the grounds explained as to why they did or did not benefit. There is that safeguard if people who did not benefit from the adult caution scheme end up in a court. The legal representatives are the safeguard as they will point it out to the court.