Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I join with others in saying that I am deeply disappointed that the much-needed citizens' assembly on drugs has not been given the urgency it needs and has not been started, as it should be now. There is an absolute urgency in the area of drug use and addiction as everyone in this House knows. Over the past 25 years we have lost 10,549 people to drug-related deaths. There is an absolute urgency about this and there should be a citizens' assembly launched right now by the Government on this. There is no time for any delay on this. There is no justification for that whatsoever.

Shamefully, as a country, since addiction and drug addiction came to our shores from the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the State has always been on the back foot in terms of responding. When the drugs task forces were set up initially they were given a good deal of prioritisation, but since then we have seen the priority continuously down scaled and they have not been given the resources that they need. It is not far from here where the communities initially faced the problems of addiction and drug use. They are very close to here but they could be miles away with regard to the slow political response over the years. It is sad to see that four decades on the State is still being slow and non-urgent in its response. While great work has been done by many people and many communities, clearly the strategies to date have not worked as we need them to. This is why a citizens' assembly in this area is absolutely urgent. If I had to choose between that and a citizens' assembly on a directly elected mayor for Dublin, I would definitely choose to deal with the issues around drugs, now and urgently.

I have long been an advocate of a directly elected mayor for Dublin and these areas need to be looked at. The lack of powers for local government and local democracy in Ireland does impact on people's daily lives. Consider how far behind we are as a country in dealing with issues around housing, childcare and transport. We are surrounded by countries where these issues are effectively tackled at a local level because local democracy is well resourced, well organised and has the proper structures in place. They either have directly elected mayors in place or mayors that are in place for a five-year term but indirectly elected. These places have one or the other, and it gives those local authorities leadership. It means that the local authority members are able to hold the non-elected leadership of the councils to account. There is a balance there, and that balance is completely and utterly lacking at the moment. Because of the highly centralised nature of government here we have suffered hugely from not devolving powers, not just to local authorities but also in empowering local communities and local people. This is really what a citizens' assembly should be about. It is about how we structure things politically in the local authorities but ultimately it is about how we can give power back to communities so they can be involved in the decision-making to solve the problems that they face. This is really what that citizens' assembly needs to be about.

Deputy Mitchell referred to a very good point about how those 12 councillors are chosen. It would be a huge mistake if this is to be done as three per local authority, in which case we would end up with representation just of the larger political parties. There must be representation that reflects the diversity on the four Dublin local authorities and this would include the smaller parties and people from no parties at all. This must be done and not be a stitch up by the larger political parties. That would not be acceptable.

I very much welcome the proposed citizens' assembly on the biodiversity crisis. This is absolutely crucial. It cannot be an excuse for government inaction in this area. We need to see urgent action in beefing up the National Parks and Wildlife Service straightaway. The targets for 30% of marine protected areas should be advanced quickly and urgently. Biodiversity and tackling biodiversity issues is absolutely key to furthering our efforts in tackling climate change. A lot of Ireland's biodiversity and marine life is absolutely key for carbon capture and while it has a massive intrinsic value itself, it also has a massive value in combatting and fighting climate change. I welcome that there will be citizens' assembly on that but really I would like to see the Government get on with a lot of the actions we know it could be taking now to tackle the biodiversity crisis we have.

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