Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)

We are asking the Government to listen to this Chamber, the people's Chamber. It should listen to its own senior backbenchers if it will not listen to the Opposition, follow the data and change its drug policy. We know it is listening to tech bros running op eds about trying to rebrand itself as a government that can deliver on infrastructure. It needs to deliver on people suffering with drug addiction. The data is there. If it is going to be the government of delivery, then it needs to prove it and deliver what we are asking for - fixed and mobile consumption centres. It should not take nine years to deliver one, like it did when we first proposed one in 2015 which was only opened last year. If it is the new face of delivery, it needs to deliver for people suffering from drug addiction.

Criminalisation of people who use drugs has not worked full stop. It has been an absolute abject failure. That is not even the discussion any more. We know the issue is more acute in working class areas, but is not restricted to them. It cuts through age, demographics, class and constituency; it is everywhere. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has been at pains to tell us all that our prisons cannot handle the levels of people they face, yet by not decriminalising possession of drugs for personal use, we are still seeing 10,000 people arrested each year.

Sixty-seven percent of all those arrests are for personal use, which is an absolute failure. It is not as if we do not know there is another way to do this. We have spoken about the Portuguese model. It is in place and the data are available. The WHO, as has been said, favours decriminalisation.

The Labour Party, through Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and Deputy Marie Sherlock, our health spokesperson, have led and continue to lead on this. As Mr. Ó Ríordáin said in an interview last week, the truth of the matter is that our State policy over the years has had no respect for those who use drugs, no empathy for them in respect of how they became addicted and no concern for what happens to them once addicted. For every other policy, whether in government or opposition, we try to base our thinking on data. That is what the Labour Party is doing here, yet the Government is basing its drugs policy on feelings and moralism. This is absolutely wrong and needs to end. The template exists and it can be delivered.

If we as legislators cannot find a way to tackle the stigma head on, we will continue to see a high level of drug-induced deaths. In 2021, our rate of drug-induced deaths among those between 16 and 64 was four times the EU average. In 2024, the European Drug Report ranked Ireland first among reported EU countries. There were 354 drug-poisoning deaths in Ireland last year, which is twice the number of people killed in road traffic accidents, which we all know is a national tragedy.

How many Dáil statements did we have for the victims of road deaths last year? We had three, and rightly so. How many did we have for those poor people who lost their lives to drug-induced poisoning? We had none. That shows where this Government’s priorities are in terms of tackling deaths and addiction by drug use. It has to change. We have offered the Government a motion multiple times. It should please follow through and deliver for people suffering from addiction.

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