Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)

Decriminalisation is an issue that the Labour Party and my colleagues have been raising consistently over a number of years. I am proud to be in a party that has been pushing consistently for reform of our societal attitudes to drug use, from Pat Rabbitte 30 years ago establishing the drug and alcohol task forces around the country to the steadfast leadership of Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, now our MEP for Dublin, when it has come to the issue of decriminalisation.

I pay tribute to the Tallaght drugs and alcohol task force. I am consistently bowled over by the tremendous work it does on the ground in Dublin South-West, from Tallaght to Whitechurch, in terms of prevention, support outreach and the innovative approaches it takes involving youth work. There is a Connect 4 project in the area that I am particularly impressed with. It is important that these task forces and the projects they are involved in continue to get the funding they need over the coming years.

As others have said our motion today is not even about drugs. At its heart this is a motion about people, vulnerable people, marginalised people and people who are sick, and the value we place on their lives or more accurately the lack of value because if we truly valued the lives of people suffering from addiction, we would have changed our approach long ago. Dealing with the issue of addiction and drugs solely through the criminal justice system has not worked. I do not think anyone in this House would argue with that. I suppose it could depend on a person's views of the outcomes we hope to achieve in our response to drug use and addiction, but our criminal justice approach has been indicative of a State and, if we are honest, a society that for a long time would prefer not to acknowledge the dignity and the humanity of those who have unfortunately found themselves dependent on drugs. It has allowed us to brush the issue under the rug and forget about them.

However, drug use is so prevalent now that it has become difficult for people to ignore. It is in every town and village across the country, as we have heard. It is in every community, every workplace, every family and every club. To criminalise drug use is to completely misunderstand the nature of addiction. Of course, we can slap someone who is suffering from addiction with a charge or a custodial sentence and pretend that will solve a problem; it simply will not. Drug use is just not a choice for people who are suffering from addiction and punishing them for their addiction is absolutely not going to deter them; on the contrary all it does is push them further and further to the margins. That marginalisation, particularly among neglected communities and which is often multigenerational, is very often what fuels drug use in the first place. We need a genuine health-led approach, one that prioritises harm reduction and recovery, and supports people out of addiction.

The World Health Organization now favours decriminalisation of people who use drugs. Ultimately this is a sensible approach. It is the effective approach. It is the approach that will save lives - lives that have been undervalued for too long. It is about time we changed it.

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