Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There are several issues with the response from the Minister of State. The use of language in this debate is extremely important. I referred to the decriminalisation of the "drug user", while the response from the Minister of State refers to the "decriminalisation of drugs" and continues with a reference to the legalisation of drugs. Decriminalisation and legalisation are completely different issues, as are decriminalisation of the drug user and decriminalisation of drugs.

I am talking about the person, and the decriminalisation of the person. If the Minister of State had come in here at the beginning of the pandemic and said that the solution to Covid-19 was to arrest everyone who gets it, everybody would have thought she was out of her mind. People at the start of the pandemic would have regarded people working on the front line or living in poor conditions, for example, as victims of this virus, not as people who should be penalised by the State. It would be a ridiculous response from the State to arrest people because they have Covid-19, but that is exactly what the State does in respect of people with addiction issues. We arrest them for possession of something they are addicted to. It does not work. We have the fourth highest overdose rate in Europe.

People are dying and the response-----

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