Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Garda Commissioner has been invited to attend a meeting of the committee. He, or somebody nominated by him, will do so in September. The Deputy will have the opportunity to put the points he has made today to the Garda Síochána representatives, as well as Dr. Ó Concubhair's characterisation of the Garda's approach to the citizens' assembly. Those points should be put to An Garda Síochána. I will not be here. The points should be put to the Garda representatives at the meeting in September and, in fairness, they should be given an opportunity to respond.

I have a few questions, after which I will go back to members for a second round. Dr. Ó Concubhair made the very interesting point that criminal offences, at their core, are designed to impose stigma and that we cannot remove the stigma around conduct if we maintain criminal offences in respect of that conduct. On the other hand, he cautioned about the limits of the State in imposing a moral code based on the criminal law. Without wishing to mischaracterise what he said, he seemed to argue that criminalisation has not resulted in a negative perception of drug use in certain communities. He talked about the purposes of the criminal law. One of those purposes is to provide a deterrent. Certainly, that is what I was told when I studied criminal law a very long time ago. Is there not something of a contradiction in his position? On the one hand, he is saying we cannot destigmatise without decriminalising and, on the other hand, he is saying criminalisation has not resulted in a deterrence or a stigmatisation.