Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is a truly an important debate. It is disappointing that other than Labour Party Deputies, the only other Member present is the Minister of State charged with responding to the motion. What our spokesperson, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, has done in crafting this comprehensive, thoughtful motion is shine a light on an issue that impacts on all communities in our country, including every village, town, city and rural area. Everyone in this House knows that. We know we have a massive issue with drug abuse, drug-related illnesses and drug-related deaths. We also know there is unimaginable hurt and pain being felt by families in all our constituencies every day and Deputy Ó Ríordáin has just described some of that. Due to the nature of this issue, it is almost unspeakable; it is silent. This is a hurt that needs now to be addressed.

The core statistics set out in our motion should shock each of us because these cold facts tell us one thing, namely, our current strategies are not working. The situation is getting worse. I have been policy focused for my entire career here. In any other sphere of public policy, when faced with those sort of realities, that inescapable truth, the response is to change tack, to see what actually works internationally and to implement change.

This is an uncomfortable discussion for many. When faced with challenging societal issues in the past, we put in place a most useful device, namely, was the citizen's assembly. It was an idea originally championed by my party's former leader, Eamon Gilmore, and is one that has proven its worth. It has helped Ireland rethink difficult issues based on fundamental evidence and fact. We urgently need that now. We must have the long-promised citizen's assembly on drugs. We must hear from those affected. We must hear from those dealing with the drugs issue from the health side, the rehabilitation side and the administration of justice side. We will hear a tale that is both harrowing and instructive. Whatever angle people come at this issue from, they will come to the same conclusion, namely, that we need a change of policy. Marginalisation and criminalisation have failed here and elsewhere.

The experience in the US is instructive. There is a political pressure, dating back to Bill Clinton's time, to be strong on drugs. There has been a policy of mass arrests and incarceration. The prison population has mushroomed beyond all imagination. Enormous resources have been deployed and communities ghettoised to no good effect. Other countries, as Deputy Ó Ríordáin stated, have done much better. The Portuguese experience is instructive. Portugal decriminalised the user while maintaining criminal penalties for those trafficking and selling drugs. It developed a comprehensive system I do not have time to go into, but it is instructive. We should look at and learn from it.

Our motion calls for a change of tack and for a focus on this issue, which impacts on all of us. I ask the Government to look positively at it, to act instantly to create the citizen's assembly, to let the voices of the thousands of our citizens who are hurting be heard and to let us see what we can do to make things better for them rather than continuing on a path that is self-evidently not working.

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