Results 541-560 of 1,040,403 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:David Stanton OR speaker:Mick Barry OR speaker:Matt Shanahan OR speaker:Seán Crowe OR speaker:Sorca Clarke) in 'Committee meetings'

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Renewable Energy Generation (11 Jul 2024)

Darren O'Rourke: There is a lot in the question and a lot in the answer. At the root of it, however, similar to my colleague, Deputy Quinlivan, is the concern about what we are hearing with regard to the readiness of the industry here, whether we look at ports, planning, the grid or supply chain. It is a statement of fact at this stage to say that none of our phase 1 offshore wind farms will be developed on...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Renewable Energy Generation (11 Jul 2024)

Dara Calleary: I assure the Deputy that we are making very detailed progress in our Department in terms of Powering Prosperity through skills and job and supply chain opportunities. That is acknowledged by the groups with which we are engaging. As the Deputy knows, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has responsibility for future auctions and grid development. The Minister,...

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I thank Mr. Leitão da Silva. He highlighted how Portugal is on a journey ahead of us. Everybody at the moment seems to be talking about Portugal, or at least we certainly are, and what it has been doing over recent decades. On the philosophy of policing and treating drug use as an inevitable consequence of where society is, without criminalising people, has the police force in...

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

Matt Shanahan: To go back to the idea of trying to interdict a greater uptake of drug taking where there is decriminalisation, we understand and have heard a lot about the logic behind that, but in terms of policing measures, I would say there is a societal desire to try, insofar as possible, to discourage recreational drug taking, especially because it may be a pathway to harder addiction. As we are...

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I might rephrase it. If, on the one hand, society wants to have some control of the expanding use of drugs but, on the other, we decriminalise and take away a sanction we have in the system at the moment, whereby everybody who is illegally supplying drugs will know there is going to be more drug use in this country over time, and if we do not have measures to try to prevent that, are we not...

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

David Stanton: I thank the superintendent for being with us and for his work in this area. We visited Portugal a number of years ago and I met a lot of people there who were involved in this project and the policy, which was very impressive. We had a presentation earlier this week from police from Vancouver and someone from the United States about places where there was decriminalisation. It seemed to...

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

David Stanton: Would Mr. Leitão da Silva therefore recommend that if we were to bring in decriminalisation in Ireland that we treat it in a similar way to alcohol, meaning the use of drugs in a public place, as I described earlier, would not be permitted?

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

David Stanton: Okay. It seems in Vancouver and Oregon, the use of drugs in public places derailed the decriminalisation. That was what I understood from the presentation earlier in the week. People were very unsettled and upset. There was a description of people being at the beach with their children and somebody next door visibly using drugs.

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

David Stanton: That seems to have derailed the thing. When I was in Lisbon all those years ago, I made an inquiry with police officers at the time about how it often appears that if you walk down the street you are offered substances. People approach tourists and others and offer substances in small bags. I was told by the police at the time that a lot of that was bogus, fake and not real.

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

David Stanton: A person would not know whether it was or not, but the story here in Ireland is tourists and others are assailed on the streets of Lisbon and other cities with this behaviour. Will Mr. Leitão da Silva comment on that?

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

David Stanton: It gives a very poor picture of Lisbon and cities in Portugal for tourists and others here. When it reaches our airwaves, people talk about it and use it as a reason for not decriminalising. They blame decriminalisation for this, and a liberal approach.

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

David Stanton: That is fine. I cannot see the clock from here. I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach.

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I thank our guests. It is really great to have people with such wide experience talking. Dr. Ó Concubhair also has lived experience. In his opening statement, he made some points highlighting what is becoming a common theme here, that is, that the present war on drugs is not winnable and that recreational drug use is essentially a fact of life. I drink alcohol. That is my vice. It...

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

Matt Shanahan: What I am wondering about is whether we should decriminalise and give society the idea that widespread drug-taking of all types is permissible and quite okay. Just the same as you might have a drink, you might take an opioid and all of that. Does Dr. Ó Concubhair have concerns about what that might look like? Is it a realisable vision?

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I thank Dr. Ó Concubhair for that. Mr. Glynn might like to come in here as well. My concern relates to drug dependence. I worked in a business in the healthcare space that involved regulated opioids and I have seen the addictive nature of those drugs. How are we to stop recreational drug users embarking on a pathway to a range of different drugs? Vaping might be an example. It...

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

Matt Shanahan: No, I am not. I am asking whether Dr. Ó Concubhair is concerned. I believe Ireland is an outlier. With regard to alcohol, we were told for years that the Irish personality or psyche is such that, in a lot of ways, we tend to go all in. That is my opinion. We all know recreational drug users. That is fine. However, we have one system in this country, one of criminal sanctions. It...

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

David Stanton: The Chair might tell me when my ten minutes are up, as I do not have access to a clock. I welcome our two guests and thank them very much for their thought-provoking and sincere presentations. Dr. Ó Concubhair mentioned the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which mandates signatory states to pursue a criminal justice-led response on drug use and drug markets. I...

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Jul 2024)

David Stanton: I thank Dr. Ó Conchubhair. As I said earlier to our previous guest, one of the issues about which we learnt earlier this week was that when the use of drugs was decriminalised in British Columbia and Vancouver, and also in parts of the United States, it seemed to initially go too far in that it permitted people to use drugs publicly on the streets straight away, which led to a backlash...