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

I am sorry. The Minister of State's proposal is that people will get a criminal sanction if they are caught a third time. What is the difference? If someone is acutely and profoundly addicted to something, surely the hundredth time that he or she has an intervention because of that addiction should have the same response as the third time. What is utterly heartbreaking about this is that the people affected are powerless. If they had more power and more value in society, we would not be treating them like this and they would not be ending up in graveyards at the rate they are. It is because they are disproportionately poor that they are treated by the State in this fashion.

I suggest to the Minister of State that the proposal for a citizens' assembly on drugs be fast-tracked, she put to one side her current proposal on how to deal with people in addiction and look instead to the Portuguese model, which is much more humane and has successfully reduced the number of people in addiction programmes by 50%. Crucially, it has also reduced the number of people dying from overdoses by 75%.

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