Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 24 October 2024

Committee on Drugs Use

Family and Community: Discussion

9:30 am

Mr. Thomas McCann:

Yes, thanks. The work of this committee and the citizens' assembly is really important, as are their reports on decriminalisation. As I said, there is a need for culturally appropriate interventions as one size does not fit all communities.

From within the Traveller community and in my own right, from the early 1980s I have been involved in Traveller rights. A number of reports have issued and recommendations have been made. As has been said, the community is losing hope that this system cares about them at all or is really going to implement the changes that are needed. That has come up repeatedly about implementation. If we took all the recommendations that have been made in the past 40 years, we would have substantial change. What the community and the services want is to see some of the recommendations implemented. They want to see follow through. Earlier on, I mentioned A Vision for Change in 2006. In 2012, there was the HSE's intercultural strategy. There is a rake of recommendations there but they have not been followed through. The community does not want another report, people want to know if these recommendations are really going to be implemented. It is the same with other committees. This comes up repeatedly.

I thank the committee. I really value the work that this committee is doing and that the citizens' assembly has done.