Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. I anticipate the Government will consider the question of the next citizens' assemblies in the near future. Once a decision has been taken, we will promptly bring forward a proposal to the House for debate and resolution. Subject to the timely passage of the resolution, my expectation is that the next citizens' assemblies could commence as early as April or May and should be in a position to report back to the House before the end of the year. The Government is committed to fulfilling the programme for Government commitment to establish new citizens' assemblies on matters relating to drug use and the future of education. We are keen to have them up and running before the summer recess. I can confirm that the work of the Joint Committee on Justice will inform the terms of reference, as will earlier work carried out by former Justice Garrett Sheehan's group and the justice committee previously under Deputy Stanton's chairmanship. The citizens' assembly on drugs will look at issues in the round and decriminalisation can be part of that.

The two citizens' assemblies in 2022 were run in parallel. It is possible. However, the clear advice from the chairpersons of both assemblies and the independent evaluators was that future assemblies should be run sequentially rather than concurrently. That is the best way to give each assembly the necessary space and time to undertake its deliberations without undue constraints. In response to the Deputies' questions, we will listen to what the citizens' assemblies have to say. It is fair to say we did so on marriage equality, on the eighth amendment and on the climate law, but listening to what they say does not necessarily mean adopting every recommendation lock, stock and barrel.

There is some misunderstanding and misinformation with respect to the Irish Strategic Forestry Fund. No State-owned land is involved. No public land is being privatised. The land is already privately owned and most of it is under forest already. We need forests for many reasons. We need them as a climate sink, for biodiversity and for leisure but also for timber and that is where spruce and conifers are the most useful. We want to move away from using concrete and steel in favour of timber-----

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