Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I support the Bill in the fullest and congratulate Sinn Féin on proposing it. We will be supporting it fully and hope it goes through. The Bill seeks to ban the coercion of minors into drug dealing. We see the full effects of this activity in many of our communities every week and every day. When you think about the coercion of minors into the drug trade or try to describe it to somebody else who may not be as familiar with it, you often think it is achieved in a subtle way and that kids are somehow enticed into the trade by people who give them reams of money and who go around with expensive tracksuits, motorbikes and cars. I assure people that, in many instances, that is not the case. Often, young people get into a small amount of debt which then must be repaid by selling drugs. Debts that start off small become incredibly large in some cases. Then the intimidation starts. I hope that the drug-related intimidation of young people into the drug trade is addressed, whether through this Bill, which will not pass because the Government is not supporting it, or through the Government's Bill. It is vitally important because, in the communities I represent, families who get that knock on the door very often go to charities to get support or to ad hocgroups or moneylenders because neither the State nor the law are on their side and they have no recourse to action. Even if they have such recourse, they are terrified of the ramifications of taking it.

I recently heard of the case of a young kid who had got involved in the sale of cocaine. This was forced upon him because of a small debt he owed as a result of his own addiction. This kid's family's door was consistently being knocked at. They were being threatened and their windows were getting knocked in. That kid has now had to flee to the UK at 17 years of age and has to try to build a life for himself over there. That is what is happening in our communities at this very moment. Whatever legislation is put in place, it needs to be backed up with significant resources and there needs to be consequences for the people who are inflicting this terror on communities and individuals. It needs to be stringent and the Government will have our full support as it ploughs ahead with it.

We talk about the coercion of minors into the selling of drugs. It is inhumane on every level. What we cannot separate ourselves from is what coerces people to get involved in taking these drugs, leading to these devastating effects. People are using cocaine. Heroin used to be the issue and there are still complications in that regard but they mainly affect an older generation. We saw crack cocaine in the documentary on O'Connell Street the other night. It is rampant in communities. The gateway to many of these drugs, which we cannot separate from these issues and which does not seem to be catered for in this Bill or in the Bill the Government is bringing forward, lies in trauma and poverty. We often say in the Chamber and elsewhere that we need to have a conversation about these drugs or other matters. We need a full and mature conversation reflective of a modern republic that deals with people with compassion when they need it and to recognise that poverty and trauma are gateways to addiction. If we recognise that, we will stop criminalising people for their desperate need to inject themselves with or otherwise take some sort of substance that, for the briefest moment of time, alleviates their pain.

That is all that is happening here. Ever since drugs, and heroin in particular, first penetrated working-class Dublin communities in the late 1970s before spreading out like a virus, all people have been doing is injecting themselves with substances to deal with the pain they are experiencing. It is unfathomable to me that, in the year 2022, we still criminalise people for that trauma. The Taoiseach promised me yesterday that we are going have a citizens' assembly on drugs, possibly in January. That is very welcome. That conversation needs to start from a position of no longer criminalising people for trying to alleviate themselves of pain. It is a very simple premise. If we start from there, we will advance significantly as a republic. I will be supporting the Bill. I thank the Deputies for bringing it forward.

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