Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like the other Deputies, I urge the Taoiseach to name a date and a chairperson for the citizens' assembly. I join the Taoiseach in congratulating the chairs of the two previous bodies. We have a citizens' assembly infrastructure. It has dealt with two issues and we have two more to go. I can appreciate why it has taken some time to get here. There is a commitment in the programme for Government. That is positive. Both the Taoiseach and his predecessor have committed to having it in 2023. That is hopeful.

Along with the citizens' assembly debate, we also need to have a civic society debate. We need to ensure that organisations, such has the drugs task forces, are funded so that they can have those conversations with communities that have been impacted by drugs and with communities that have not been impacted by drugs, or believe that they have not been impacted by drugs because we know drug use is across all of society. I ask the Minister of State to engage with the drugs task forces to enable that civic society campaign in parallel to the citizens' assembly. I would ask for society, more broadly, to start to have the discussion. If you have not thought about the issue of drugs, if you have not thought about how it impacts you and your community, I ask that you start to have those discussions. By doing that, we will have an informed debate, not one based on moral judgments.

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