Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their questions. On the Shane O'Farrell case, which will be debated later in the House, we all accept that the process has taken much longer than any of us would have liked. However, Deputies will appreciate that the terms of the reference of the scoping exercise - it is normal to do a scoping exercise before a commission of inquiry - must be compliant and in line with jurisprudence established by the Supreme Court in the case of Shatter v. Guerin, which judgment was delivered by the Supreme Court after the original terms of reference had been finalised. This is what gave rise to this change.

The terms of reference for the scoping exercise are focused, as required by the law and as clearly set out in the Supreme Court in Shatter v. Guerin, to reduce the risk of legal challenge to the recommendations of the scoping exercise. The judgment requires that the terms of reference of the scoping exercise be as specific as possible to remove any potential ambiguity and also focused enough to provide a timely outcome to ensure fairness to all parties. However, they still allow for a review of the issues intended.

Judge Haughton is free to make any recommendations that he sees fit and the O'Farrell family are also free to make any representations to Judge Haughton in regard to any matter that they would wish to see inquired into in any future inquiry. The focused terms of reference of the scoping exercise also allow consideration of what broader public policy issues highlighted by the case, such as breaches of bail conditions and execution of warrants, merit further consideration. Throughout the process, the Department of Justice and Equality has consulted with the Office of the Attorney General and we are all anxious to see progress on this matter.

I ask Deputies to understand that the Minister for Justice and Equality cannot, and should not, prejudge Mr. Justice Haughton's report or change the terms of reference, just as he is about to issue his initial report, in a way that does not comply with the law. I understand that Mr. Justice Haughton may be able to produce his report in the next few days.

In response to some of the questions I was asked on drugs policy, we have a national cross-government drugs strategy monitored by the Cabinet sub-committee on social policy. The implementation of the national drugs strategy is driven by the national oversight committee, which has 35 members. We recently added a civil servant from my Department to that committee. Some 11 of the 35 members represent task forces in the community sector so they are very much involved in the oversight committee. I am of the view, as is the Government, that our approach to illegal drugs should be health-led rather than criminal justice-led. However, we need to acknowledge that it has a criminal justice aspect because so much of it is connected to crime and criminal activity. In terms of the kind of things we are doing, people will be aware of the efforts the Government is making to provide a new injecting centre in Merchant's Quay. We are working with Merchants Quay Ireland on that. Unfortunately, the city council refused planning permission but we are going to An Bord Pleanála because we want to do it. We have agreed with the Simon Community to build a 100-bed addiction services centre for people who are homeless and who are addicts to get them off the streets and into a centre where they can have their addiction treated. We are working with the Simon Community on that. We have also made Naloxone much more available. That drug can be used almost instantly to save somebody from an opioid overdose. It was not widely available five or six years ago but it is now. On foot of the expert group report, we are going to move away from a situation whereby if somebody is found in possession of a small amount of drugs for personal use, the default option is prosecution and towards a more health-led approach, giving somebody the option of attending a health-led rehabilitation programme. We do not want to end up in a situation whereby we criminalise large numbers of people for possession of a small amount of illegal drugs. That is not an approach that has worked but we are not going as far as full decriminalisation or legalisation. I know some people would call for that but we are not going to go that far.

On Garda resources, the budget for the Garda next year is €1.88 billion, which is the biggest budget for the Garda ever.

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