Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I speak in support of literally every word that my colleague, Senator Ruane, said. There is not one word that I would disagree with. I hope that the Government is listening. What Senator Ruane has talked about is important. She has talked about people's lives, communities and realities. She is in here day after day, talking to us about this issue. I agree with her 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, far-away people who are not worthy of our time or consideration because somehow they are other and away from us, and we do not have to face that every day. Some of us in the Chamber face that every day and it is wrong for us not to listen to that person. It is not fair to put it all on that person. It is not fair for Senator Ruane to have to constantly stand up to bare her soul and her community just to try to get us to listen, to then have her, six years later, asking for someone to please do something. That is not good enough. It is not acceptable. It is not what this House is set up for or what we, as politicians, or the Government should be doing.

When we use terms such as "they" and "users, we are talking about people, mothers, fathers, someone's son, someone's best friend from school, communities, someone's neighbour and people who have been in and out of these Houses. All people deserve care, compassion and dignity. Everyone, including people who are addicted and affected by drugs, deserve timely consideration in the political system. Most especially deserving of consideration is a group of people who are dying at a rate of one a day due to overdoses. This does not include the other deaths and systemic failures that come from drug use in those communities. That is just one figure that has been talked about a lot over the past couple of weeks. Many more lives have been devastated and affected by this than just the ones we are talking about every single day.

We need to tease out, discuss and re-evaluate our society's approach to our placing of care and compassion. We need to place care, compassion and dignity at the centre, which we cannot do if we do not first stop to consider their needs and lives. I believe a citizens' assembly is essential to this. Sometimes, citizens' assemblies can be really good. They help us to tease out complex questions which we are not sure of the answer to or about which way the State wishes to go. That includes issues such as abortion. It turned out that the citizens' assembly to address it was bang on the money. Some of what is discussed at citizens' assemblies may require a referendum to constitute but they certainly will involve resetting or having a significant paradigm shift in society.On this particular issue of drugs, this could involve legalising or decriminalising which, incidentally, are two entirely different things. I implore legislators to learn the difference between decriminalisation and legalisation because it is very disheartening to hear in meetings with a Minister or of the Joint Committee on Health these words being bandied about without any real understanding or acknowledgement of how those words or legal frameworks will affect the communities we are discussing. If nothing else, I ask Members to go away and learn about those issues.

The citizens' assembly may discuss cannabis, harder drugs, the who, what, where, when and why, gangs and social, recreational and addictive drug use. All of these issues are complex and difficult and the members of the citizens' assembly will need time to get informed, face their fears, get facts and be educated. I keep using the word "time" because, as Senator Ruane said, we do not have time. The citizens' assembly is being given considerable time but every time more time is given and it is pushed out and further away, lives are lost.

Senator Ruane has raised a crucial issue. The Labour Party and many other Senators on this side of the House support her amendment. This is about lives and the value we put on them. The Government today, from what I am hearing, is saying those lives do not matter and there are other issues of greater importance. I was at the meeting of the Joint Committee on Health to which Senator Ruane referred. I felt like I was back in the time of Ronald Reagan when people spoke about drug users as "they" who were this or that. "They" are real people who are dying. They are doing these things because of a systemic failure at a political level.

Will the citizens' assembly solve everything? No, it will not. However, that the Government cannot see the wood for the trees on this particular issue and will not prioritise the issue tells me all I need to know about what it is going to do for drug users. Quite frankly, it seems like it will do absolutely nothing and that is a crying shame.

If Government Senators cannot vote for Senator Ruane's amendment, I ask that they at least not vote against it. I do not know what way their Whip system is working on the motion. They should not express support in their words and then do the opposite in their actions. I reiterate that this is about lives. The Government has the power to say today, or over the next couple of days, whether these lives matter. We, on this side of the House, are saying they do matter and it would do no harm for Government Senators to put their money where their mouth is and, through their votes and actions, also say they matter.