Saoirse Brady

So, you know, we really welcome the fact that spent convictions is part of this report as well.

But if we're talking about reinvesting the money that you would spend in terms of bringing people to court

you know, interaction with the Gardaí and then imprisonment in certain instances, that money would be much better spent and maybe we would have the money to invest in mental health services, in proper addiction services and in youth work, community engagement services and family support, all of which the committee report addresses.

very comprehensively.

It's a very lengthy report.

We haven't had it very long, so I haven't had a chance to go through it in detail.

But I am so impressed at the person-centred approach it takes.

And it addresses all of the concerns that are out there about what drugs can do to individuals, families and communities.

And it talks about ways to prevent that from happening and to actually prevent more drug use.

It is not encouraging drug use in any sense.

And I think we need to just be mindful of the fact that we are talking about decriminalising people here, people who go on to try and access education, employment, get housing and insurance and can't do that when they have a conviction for a simple possession for personal use.

So I suppose there's a couple of things.

One, we have an overcrowding situation in prison at the moment, so we're heading towards 6,000 people in prison.

And the Irish Prison Service itself estimates that 70%, so 7 out of 10 people, have an addiction issue.

The other part of it is that 3 out of 4 people are going to prison for a year or less, so they're not actually getting to the top of the waiting list to get assessed regularly.

for what treatment they might need before they're out again.

And then there's that discontinuity between prison and community.

So if you don't get the help that you need in prison, you're back out in the community.

You don't get the help that you need there.

So the likelihood is that you end up back in prison.