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

I have already congratulated the Minister for State on her efforts in this regard. The former Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, also did work in this space. This is one of the most important debates we are going to have in the House. It would be only fair for me to acknowledge the efforts of the Green Party in the discussions on the programme for Government to make sure there was a commitment to establish a citizens' assembly. I also acknowledge the Trojan work done by my colleague from the Green Party, Deputy Hourigan, to ensure that we got to this point.

I appreciate the contribution the Minister of State made. She spoke strongly about timelines. This is a once-in-a-generation, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to do something to stop the body count. There is a body count of poor people. If the body count was of anything else but poor people, we would have done something before now. I say with all sincerity that if the body count was of cattle, we would have done something by now. The people who die as a result of drug overdoses just do not matter as much. As previous speakers indicated, they are called names, even by some in this House. They are derided and dehumanised and their families are accused of poor parenting. Their families cannot come forward and talk about the matter. They are expected to travel from where they live to places miles away in order to get something as basic as methadone treatment. They are hated and despised. They are dying in huge numbers. We have the third highest overdose rate in Europe. We cannot get this wrong. Even though I appreciate Government finally establishing this assembly, I am concerned that, if nothing comes out of it, we will have raised expectations unfairly and would have been better off not having the conversation at all. If the assembly reports by the end of the year, what will happen then? The matter will go to a special committee of the Oireachtas, and we will all want to feed into that. There must be a commitment from the Government to do something about it.

With previous citizens' assemblies and constitutional conventions, we, as politicians, had the get-out clause of giving a matter over to the people. When it came to marriage equality, we could just give it to the people and let them decide. When it came to abortion, we could just give it to the people and let them decide by means of a referendum. We had cover. We cannot do that with this matter. If we are going to make radical change in order to effectively stop the body count of poor people, then the responsibility is going to lie with us. We are going to have to take on that responsibility.

The Labour Party deliberately chose not to table an amendment to the motion. This is not because we disagree with those who have tabled amendments, but because we want to start this off on a level of good faith that we are going to work together collaboratively. The stakes are far too high and the lives being lost are far too valuable. We will do everything in our power to work with the Minister of State and the Government. We will also take the criticism and take the hit. It is not a very popular political position to take to be on the side of the person in addiction. It is much easier to go with the just-say-no, war-on-drugs line, and pretend to be the tough guy. It is harder and politically more dangerous to make the case for those who are most vulnerable and are dying in the biggest numbers from this epidemic. We will take the risk and work with the Government to get this over the line. It will require us to do it. We cannot give this over to anybody else. I suggest to the Minister of State that at the heart of this must be the person who is a service user, who is in recovery or who is in addiction. We do not hear those voices in the media because they have been told to be ashamed of themselves. Society blames the victim - it is their own fault. We are talking about a central issue of inequality. If this comes down to a debate about drugs being bad and telling people to stop taking them, then it is a waste of oxygen.

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