Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I move:That Dáil Éireann notes that:

— during the past 25 years of a law-enforcement approach to drug abuse, drug-related deaths have increased by 225 per cent, compared to a 68 per cent reduction in road deaths in the same period, with the total number of such deaths well exceeding 10,500;

— Ireland now has the joint-highest rate of drug-induced deaths among 16 to 64-year-olds in the European Union (EU);

— the number of people prosecuted for possession for personal use has increased over that period by 484 per cent, with more than a quarter of a million convictions recorded for that offence;

— in the same period there has been a substantial overall increase in drug use, with use of cocaine rising by 10,376 per cent, benzodiazepines by 1,824 per cent and cannabis by 263 per cent;

— drug abuse and its harmful effects, including crimes of violence, intimidation and extortion aimed at addicts, their families and their communities, are no longer urban phenomena and are spread across the State;

— despite enabling legislation being passed in 2017, followed by Health Service Executive (HSE) procurement and the selection of a preferred operator to run the State's first medically supervised injecting facility in Dublin City Centre, this urgent initiative is still stalled;

— although in 2019 the Government announced a health diversion programme, involving mandatory referrals to the HSE, the programme applies only to adults caught in possession for the first time, and progress on the implementation of this very limited initiative is acknowledged as "slow" in the mid-term review of the National Drugs Strategy;

— there is no firm commitment to further progress on drugs treatment courts, to assist offenders with drug-related problems;

— despite the significant number of people who abuse drugs and suffer from a mental health illness, our mental health services and addiction treatment centres are still not organised to holistically treat people with a dual diagnosis; and

— the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future committed the parties in Government to convening a citizens' assembly on drugs but, despite the Taoiseach's stated intention to do so in "the latter part of this year", there is so far no indication as to whether or when it will be held;

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