Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That trend will follow into those conversations with the Garda. I am always struck by the reluctance in Ireland. It is as if the Garda profession is somehow above criticism or reform. It does not sit well with me because I look at policing from the perspective of improving it in order to keep everyone safe and improve everyone's lives. It is not a personal thing. Rather, it is looking at the institution. It is not an individual attack on any particular garda. Sometimes people seem uneasy when it comes to actually talking about the role of the Garda or its lack of ambition with regard to its capacity to engage in better policing to increase community safety. I was stopped and searched as a child, often without any adult present. Once there was a ban garda present, that apparently gave full permission. I do not know what the legal context was at the time but I was a child who knew no better. We began to run from the Garda. We did not have anything on us and we did not need to run but it was nearly like an automatic response that when gardaí came they may have stopped and searched us, so we ran. The negative relationship that creates at such a young age is what I want to address. I want that not to exist. I want people to feel safe in their communities.

The criticism is not to remove the Garda from existence; it is actually to improve the system we have. I am baffled as to how we begin to do that when we have a police force or people at the top level saying they are against decriminalisation. If people are criminalised they end up with a criminal record and it actually impacts their recovery. Police position impacts recovery because it impacts what people can avail of if they enter an abstinence model. They may not be able to get a certain job and they will not be able to study social work or go on to be a midwife, nurse, youth worker or drugs counsellor. They will be vetted and told they cannot do this job with vulnerable adults because they have a drugs possession charge, and that is rated the same as murder in this country in the context of Garda vetting. The fact is we have a police force saying it is okay with impacting addiction, recovery and opportunity and getting in the way of people actually progressing their lives. I just cannot understand why there is not a backlash to that. Deputy Gino Kenny said we need to be radical but there is absolutely nothing radical about that. It makes pure sense to decriminalise and take policing out of addiction and drug use in general.

Mr. Glynn may be able to tell me whether Ireland is a unique case in that nobody within the police force is willing to say this is not okay from a policing perspective. I have worked with police in the UK who are quite clear on this, state de facto they do not want to arrest people any more and are breaking ranks. There are people who use drugs in the police force. Nobody in Ireland is breaking ranks. Is that unique, from Mr. Glynn's perspective of working globally?