Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Generally speaking, I am supportive of citizens' assemblies if they are to perform a function that would otherwise not be performed. On the local government structures for Dublin, for instance, it is a failure of imagination and determination at a political level rather than some issue on which the great majority of Dubliners, however congregated, are to come up with some magnificent formula that is going to change things dramatically.The issues are obvious. It is not an easy problem. The issues arising from dividing power between an executive and elected councillors are fairly straightforward and do not need or merit a citizens’ assembly. I support Senator Boyhan’s amendment simply to say that there are people who have experience of this and to marginalise them in the process of looking at political reform seems to me to be foolish.

I want to address Senator Ruane’s amendment. The point she makes is 100% correct. There are comfortable parts of this city and our society where even if drugs are everywhere, they are manageable. Some families and communities have enough resources to deal with the more extreme forms of drug abuse and the consequences. As the Senator said, there are entire communities where drug abuse is either the norm or its consequences are a daily reality in terms of the quality of life and of family life, longevity, health and all of the rest. I work in another part of the city and I cross the Liffey every day. One thing that struck me in recent weeks is that on O'Donovan Rossa Bridge, there is open drug dealing going on every day just 100 yd from the Bridewell Garda station. What really horrifies me are the young men with missing legs in wheelchairs because they are the visible signs of drug abuse. As Senator Ruane has pointed out, it is the people who were buried or cremated that I do not think about or see at all. We do not see those who died by suicide and all of the others we are failing. When I was Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I was deeply concerned about whether we could deal with the drug problem through criminal justice alone and I do not think we can. In one sense, the critique that Senator Ruane offers is correct. There is almost a partnership between the criminal justice system and gangland to have a whole way of life, economy and set of activities and functions in terms of policing and breaking the law and the like which have become endemic and ineradicable at the moment.

Therefore, just like the eighth amendment, which was a serious and far-reaching issue where a deep soul-searching had to be engaged in to see where people actually stood when push came to shove, we now have to do the same regarding drugs. The issues are not free from controversy. I remember being lobbied extensively by mothers of drug addicts who told me not to legalise drugs and that if we made cannabis freely available there would be consequences because they claimed heroin would follow in its tracks. That was at a time before crack cocaine was available. We also have the American example of the opioid crisis to contend with. It is not an easy subject but the real issue as I see it is that we that simply cannot go on as we are. We cannot have the appalling consequences that Senator Ruane pointed out, such as people losing limbs or their lives or doing appalling things to one another to sustain their drug habit. We cannot have people committing suicide, families being wrecked and kids being thrown out of their homes and becoming homeless. All of these things must be addressed by our society.

It was mentioned earlier that maybe Portugal has the answer and a health-based approach to drug abuse and the consumption of drugs is the only way forward. If that is the case, let us grasp that and at least discuss it. If we are going to have a succession of citizens’ assemblies from now on, this is one issue where politicians are, as I was, afraid to say that they are going to legalise cannabis. I was asked how we can keep cannabis away from teenagers, 12-year-olds or whoever else? That was an issue on which I was lobbied. This is an occasion where we need to establish a citizens’ assembly and have a good public discussion of the subject. It cannot be kicked down the road.

In terms of priorities, people are dying and committing suicide, families are being broken up, people are going out on the streets, robbing and doing appalling things to each other in houses and all the rest arising out of the drug problem. I agree with Senator Ruane. This should be brought forward.