Holly Cairns: Calls to Decriminalise Possession and Save Lives

Ciann Comhairle, Taoiseach, someone dies from a drug overdose in Ireland almost every day. Drug deaths in this country are almost three times the EU average. Taoiseach, you have a big decision to make. You can keep on doing what we all know isn't working, criminalising people who struggle with addiction, failing to fund the services that could help them, and cramming people into overcrowded prisons where drug use is endemic. Or this government can be radical and it can be brave. You can opt to change your policy approach so that it is evidence-based and health-led. You can address the underlying causes of drug addiction, and Taoiseach, you can save lives. That is what the cross-party report from the Oireachtas Committee on Drug Use has recommended today. The decision was unanimous. Its key recommendations are that the possession of drugs for personal use be decriminalised, and that we should introduce a comprehensive health-led approach to the use and misuse of drugs. The Committee didn't pull these recommendations out of thin air. They listened to a wide variety of experts, community groups, people with lived experience of drug use and recovery, and families affected by addiction. They also heard comprehensive evidence about other parts of the world where this approach has worked. Places like Portugal, which decriminalised drugs 25 years ago and has seen huge reduction in drug-related deaths, with no increase in drug use. The Committee also heard about places where decriminalisation was introduced but not done properly, like Oregon, where drugs were decriminalised but there was no increase in resource for treatment. What is clear is that decriminalisation must be accompanied by increased investment in health services. It will not work in isolation, and that is key to the Committee's recommendation. Taoiseach, treatment options for drug use are threadbare. This is especially true in prisons which are dangerously overcrowded. It's estimated that 70% of people entering prison have an addiction or substance abuse problem. That's about 4,000 people. And how many addiction nurses are employed in Irish prisons? Zero. This is not a health-led approach. It is killing people. It is quite frankly inhumane. Taoiseach, the Oireachtas gave the members of the Drugs Committee a job. They have done that work and issued a unanimous report with cross-party support. Your national drugs strategy will be finalised next month. If the recommendations of the Committee are not included, it will have little credibility. My questions for you are, are you going to ignore that report, or will you make a commitment today that its recommendations are included? Taoiseach, please. I'll say that, first of all, I welcome the Oireachtas, the final report of the joint Oireachtas Committee. I hadn't had an opportunity to read it in its entirety. Senator Mary Fitzpatrick, who was a member of that committee, made a presentation to the Funafoil Parliamentary Party last evening in terms of the core recommendations of it. I would say to you that fundamentally over the last 20 years, we've moved to a health-led approach in terms of drug addiction. It hasn't been a criminal response in the main. It's actually been health-led. Going back to the methadone clinics with heroin in an earlier era, the focus, generally speaking, has been a health-led one. But there is a very significant number of cases presenting for treatment for problem drug use. In 2025, I think about 15,422. That's a 16% increase and a 73% increase in the annual number of cases entering treatment since the commencement of the current National Drug Strategy in 2017. Communities continue to experience harm because of drug use, and in some areas, it's very acute, the level of harm on the communities. Investment in treatment numbers, of course, or the increase in treatment numbers, reflects increasement in investment. So there has been a lot of investment, too. We can certainly continue to increase that level of investment, but we also have to be rigorous, and that's why the Roxas report is important, that the investment sees returns also. Cocaine was the most commonly treated main problem drug in 2025, accounting for 42% of all cases. And again, there has been an increase in investment in treatment services as a result of that. In terms of the diversion, I mean, the government had agreed, I think, to divert those found in possession of drugs for personal use to the health services in line with that health-led approach, and that the minister responsible, that that's commencing on an administrative basis for the time being. Obviously, government will assess the Roxas report in terms of the broader issues, including the decriminalisation proposal. About £170 million was provided last year to the Department of Health and Health Services for drug services. That's up about £54 million over the last seven or eight years, and again, it's all about treating addiction, more drug treatment services, and we will continue to expand that side of the equation. And there's been an increase in recurring funding and so on. But I think we do have to get underneath a part of addiction treatment is extremely important. I think that educational side of it is extremely important, and the health-led approach. Deputy Kearns. Taoiseach, you said the government is taking a health-led approach, and I just have to start by saying, respectfully, the government is not taking a health-led approach. There's been a citizens' assembly that's established and had its findings, there's been a cross-party Roxas committee that has done the same, and both of them have found that we need to change to a health-led approach. That includes decriminalisation amongst another range of health-led approach methods. I think from your reply, I would take it that you plan to continue with more of the same. You think that it is a health-led approach. I would really urge you to reconsider that. You highlighted a lot of figures there and a lot of funding and money going into different things. It costs a lot of money to put people in prison too. Crucially, the most important figure in all of this is the amount of lives that it's costing. Nearly one person every day in Ireland, it's hard to articulate the impact that that has on their families, their communities, on everything. You have an opportunity to do something here that will literally save lives. I'm asking you again next month with the report, will these recommendations be included? Taoiseach, please. The Government has accepted that possession of illicit drugs for personal use is fundamentally a public health issue, and not just a matter for the criminal justice system. That's been the position for quite some time. The Government will shortly introduce a health referral scheme for those found to be in possession of illicit drugs for personal use. Again, the Government will examine, as is necessary. The report is just published. We will examine it, both the Department of Health and the Department of Justice, because there were 160 recommendations. And the mental health dimension of it as well will be examined. We're going to give it very serious consideration. But I will say to you, having been in health and having experiences, it has been predominantly health-led, by the way. But that doesn't guarantee that consumption goes down. It doesn't actually quite guarantee it, and there's different experiences in different jurisdictions. So we do need to examine it. We have to keep working on this. And there's more than just one recommendation, there's 160, and we've got to implement them all. Thank you Taoiseach. Deputy Charles Ward.