Ms Oonagh McPhillips(Secretary General, Department of Justice) and Ms Caron McCaffrey (Director General, Irish Prison Service) called and examined.

.....Deputy James O'Connor: Thank you. I want to make one final point. The pandemic obviously brought about an enormous change in the requirements of policing in Ireland and the work the Department had to do in order to adjust to facilitate that. One observation is that I felt there was a significant rise in the level of substance use by younger members of society in Ireland, which is extraordinarily concerning to me, particularly when it comes to the use of what we would consider class A drugs, such as cocaine, among young members of society. I am hearing about a lot of usage by teenagers and this has been reported to me through my constituency office. This is extremely concerning.

I want to put on record that this is something we need to try to get some degree of control over. I do not wish to put across the position that this can be eliminated and, obviously, it cannot be. However, it is the case, unfortunately, that drug use is rampant in Ireland, particularly among younger members of society. While that is a topic of much debate, when it comes to more serious drugs it is a huge concern. The Department has to try to find more useful ways and, instead of trying to put people in prison, to try to guide young people away from substance abuse and drug use. It needs to find more proactive ways of getting people off the streets and away from dealing drugs. That is very important. We need to re-evaluate this through education programmes, rather than the stick approach, which, unfortunately, is not working.

Gardaí are under immense pressure and finding it very difficult to deal with gang-related crime, which has been an issue in Ireland over a long number of years. I want to make the point to the Department, the Secretary General, the assistant secretary general and all of the officials here that we have a lot of work to do to prevent people from ending up in prison and in situations of addiction. Unfortunately, from what I have seen and what I have heard through my office, this is a huge problem that is going to have huge knock-on consequences for people's mental health and the growth and development of young people in Ireland in general.

Ms Oonagh McPhillips: I would endorse that absolutely. The Department is a very active participant in the national drugs strategy that is led by the Department of Health. That health-led approach is something we are very committed to and the Garda probably outlined to the committee its increased use of the adult caution scheme in regard to this, rather than criminalising people. Obviously, gardaí enforce this area very strictly in regard to large-scale importation and so forth. They have had a lot of success over the last couple of years and I am sure recent events will help to support that. In terms of street-level activity and young people, the health-led approach is something we are completely committed to.

[For the full debate, click on this link]