Results 1-11 of 11 for drugs speaker:Annie Hoey

Seanad: Community Safety and Investment: Motion [Private Members] (28 Feb 2024)

Annie Hoey: ...love to see the Government look at. These include hate speech. I feel like time is ticking on the Government to finish out the Bill. I get the feeling it will not happen. There should also be decriminalisation of the drug user. This is something that particularly comes up in Ballymun, Finglas and north-west Dublin. People do not believe the user should be criminalised. It should be...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Jul 2023)

Annie Hoey: I was just at a briefing by the local drug and alcohol task forces in Buswells Hotel. They were talking about investment to support and aid their recovery. I am sure they will have circulated the information to everyone and I need not go into great detail. Drugs and alcohol do not only affect the communities people might think of. There were representatives from Ballymun, Dún...

Joint Committee On Health: Dual Diagnosis and Mental Health: Discussion (21 Mar 2023)

Annie Hoey: ...fact that we still have a political system and some political leaders who are very much of the abolition mind-set. There are also strategies like Just Say No, and quite hard stances on the war on drugs approach. Will we ever get to fulfil the full plan, the full potential and the full implementation of a meaningful dual diagnosis process or system in Ireland, if those people continue to...

Seanad: Citizens Assembly on Drugs Use: Motion (23 Feb 2023)

Annie Hoey: ...about this. I wore my sometimes-dubbed "wacky tabacky" jumper for the occasion. I get lots of comments online about it sometimes. Our view and response to substance use disorders and drug use reveal a lot more about our culture to date, which is slightly changing, than it does about people using these substances. I can feel that shift and I hope we see that shift in how we treat people...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare (Dogs) Bill 2022: Second Stage (14 Dec 2022)

Annie Hoey: ...past couple of years for animal mistreatment or cruelty. In 2018, a judge in Ireland gave a suspended sentence for the breach of the Animal Health and Welfare Act because the defendant had been on prescription drugs at the time. The judge said that he was a contributing member of society so it was better if he was not in jail. I am not a particularly big advocate of locking people up in...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Nov 2022)

Annie Hoey: I wish to reflect on a public meeting I ran with my Labour Party colleague, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, and Senator Sherlock in the Dublin Skylon Hotel, Drumcondra. It was about drugs policy and the decriminalisation of the drugs user. We had some incredible speakers on the panel, including former Dublin GAA player, Philly McMahon, Fr. Peter McVerry, who everyone knows about, and Anna...

Seanad: Citizens' Assemblies: Motion (23 Feb 2022)

Annie Hoey: ...frustration about whether people are listening and whether we are committing to effecting real change for these communities, which have been devastated by systemic let-downs. When we talk about drugs, we tend to talk about users. We talk about communities, concerns of locals and the police. We use really dehumanising terms such as "users". We talk about "they", as if they are other,...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Jan 2022)

Annie Hoey: ...any of their bank accounts. The Deputy Leader might be so good as to follow up with her party colleague, the Minister for Health, on this issue. I want to reflect briefly on the discussion on the national drugs strategy that took place at the meeting of the Joint Committee on Health this morning. I wish to note that Senator Ruane and I were in attendance.The conversation felt at times...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Annie Hoey: ...that up. I know a number of other people, such as Senator Ruane and others, have talked about that. The Minister of State said that there is no intention of either decriminalising or legalising drugs, which are two very separate things, by the way. Is he saying that because he does not want to pre-empt the work of the promised citizens' assembly on drug use or is it because that is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Annie Hoey: ...questions, but I suggest that it is very important for his brief that the Minister of State understands the difference between decriminalisation and legalisation, the impact that will have on drug use, what we are saying and the perceived permission we are giving. They are two very different things. Conflating the two is not very helpful to the Minister of State, or to us, as we go...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Updates on Breastfeeding: Discussion (12 May 2021)

Annie Hoey: ..., but would like to breastfeed. There is now an accumulation of evidence that the benefits to mother and baby outweigh any risk of the baby's immune system being suppressed by the minuscule amount of drugs that cross into breast milk. Do the witnesses have any thoughts on that? The person I spoke to said women should be supported to breastfeed through counselling and adjustments to the...