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

Except water perhaps, but we know the negative impact drugs have. However, similar to that debate about the issue of the eighth amendment, we also know the reality and complexity of life and what is in our control and what is not in our control. Rather than us fleshing it out in full today, because it is not really the principal focus of the debate, and I do not often agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett, but on this issue we do need a mature discussion.

Whether you believe taking a particular substance that is currently illegal is a positive or a negative thing, there are many people out there in dire places of addiction. The Minister referenced this in his comments. They need our support. They need a doctor, nurse or counsellor. They do not need a barrister and a garda to help them to solve their problems. There is also that middle bit about what is acceptable use and is it acceptable, and all of the issues around regulation. However, the first step of decriminalising the person is going to be the ultimate foundation of how we help people in addiction.

We have to be very careful that we do not allow international lobby groups on behalf of synthetic substances to become involved in influencing what the legislation would be either. They are not necessarily the friend of anybody with addiction either. I will not focus on that but literally from aggressive begging outside supermarkets to small burglaries in people’s homes, the dealing happening on corners where it would not have happened on in the past, to very serious gangland shootings, the drugs industry is the bane of the Garda’s life. It is the bane of the safety of communities. It has a massive impact. We should be directing more of our resources towards the industry and less towards those people who find themselves in problematic drug use.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee report is a valuable resource. I encourage everybody to examine it because there is a great deal of evidence in it. Many people are talking about this issue. It is going to be a challenging discussion for Irish society. We need to give people the space perhaps to not know about it and to come to it and learn more. There are plenty of places where they can do that. Fianna Fáil published a three-episode podcast that has a range of different people’s views. If you do not feel you know enough about the subject, have a listen to those three episodes of 40 minutes and you will come to the conclusion that we need to change what we are doing.

In regard to community safety, the governance structures and the community input are two key elements. This Bill is a big step forward. However, there are a couple of areas on which I have concerns. The first is the structure of joint policing committees, JPCs. Dublin city has four sub-committees which effectively act like a county JPC in any other county, but they are technically sub-committees of the city-wide JPC. In my area the city-wide JPC really concentrates on the inner city or the city core and the sub-committees are effectively joint policing committees for my area. I want to make sure that is not lost in the transfer. The joint policing committees are really important in regard to scaling up a problem. For example, the scrambler bike problem was coming up time and again at the local policing fora. Gardaí love the local policing fora which are technically sub-committees of the JPC. For that to become a policy solution, it came up through the local policing fora, onto the JPC. There were Oireachtas Members on that JPC. When the Oireachtas Members worked together it became legislation. I know that Bill will be passed. I want to make sure that there is a connection between the Oireachtas and the JPCs. I am not certain that Deputies are guaranteed to have a place on joint policing committees in the new community safety partnership. I know that will be dealt with by regulation.

I also want to make sure that every councillor gets an opportunity because it is a responsibility of councillors to listen to community safety issues and to be on JPCs. In some cases it is suggested that there might be a selection of councillors from the area. It is very difficult to get a selection of councillors to represent the full range of views that are offered among a group of councillors.

The last concern is about youth services, Tusla and the other agencies, particularly the HSE. They all play into the area of community safety, mostly the HSE because of the drugs issue, but they should be at the table. Unfortunately, partnerships were set up by my party in the early 1990s. There was a strong commitment to local area partnerships but they have been diluted over time because organisations such as the ETB and the HSE have withdrawn from them. This was mainly because they had become service level agreement, SLA, contract deliverers for Government services rather than the previous partnerships which, in many ways, is what the Minister is setting up here. If we compel them to be on these bodies they have to turn up. They have to send senior people and they have to make sure that they are following up on directions. It is unfortunate that currently on the JPC, An Garda Síochána is left holding the can for all the State agencies.

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