The Programme for Government, which was launched in June 2020, committed to holding a Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use.1 In February 2023, the Government gave its approval for the assembly to be established. The assembly’s work will run from April to December 2023. The establishment of the assembly has been overwhelmingly welcomed by stakeholders across the sector and the political spectrum.

What is a Citizens’ Assembly?
A Citizens’ Assembly is a democratic structure in which people living in Ireland are brought together to discuss and consider important and often complex legal and policy issues, independent of the Government and Oireachtas. Based on submissions from stakeholders and discussions, the assembly makes recommendations on the topic at hand and reports to the Oireachtas. Previous assemblies have covered diverse topics such as a directly elected mayor for Dublin and local government structures for Dublin; biodiversity loss; gender equality; the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution (abortion); the needs of an ageing population; fixed-term parliaments; the system for referenda; and climate change.2

How will the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use run?
The running of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use follows the structure of previous assemblies. Membership is made up of a selection of 99 Irish residents over the age of 18 and an appointed independent chair. Members do not have to be Irish citizens or on the electoral register. Based on a random selection, a pool of 20,000 households are invited to take part; of those who agree to be considered for membership a selection is made that reflects the age, gender, social class, and regional spread of Irish society. The chair of this assembly is Paul Reid, former head of the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The assembly sets its own rules and procedures, within the confines of six key principles (see Box 1). In her presentation of the motion to establish the assembly, the Minister of State with responsibility for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Hildegarde Naughton TD, emphasised the importance of this feature:

The terms of reference for the assembly have been designed so that they are  sufficiently well defined to provide a clear focus for the assembly. At the same time, they are not so prescriptive as to inhibit the scope of the assembly to define its work programme as it deems appropriate. We have learnt from the experience of previous assemblies that the terms of reference should not be expressed in an overly precise way. Every citizens’ assembly needs discretion and flexibility to define and organise its work programme as it deems appropriate.3

Box 1: Key principles of the Citizens’ Assembly

What are the terms of reference for this assembly?
The Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use will consider the legislative, policy, and operational changes the State could make to significantly reduce the harmful impacts of illicit drugs on individuals, families, communities, and wider society. In bringing the motion on the terms of reference of the assembly before the Dáil, the Minister presented that the assembly shall consider, among others:

• The drivers, prevalence, attitudes, and trends in relation to drugs use in Irish society
• The harmful impacts of drugs use on individuals, families, communities, and wider society
• Best practice in promoting and supporting rehabilitation and recovery from drug addiction
• The lived experience of young people and adults affected by drugs use, as well as their families and communities
• International, European Union (EU), national, and local perspectives on drugs use
• The efficacy of current strategic, policy, and operational responses to drugs use
• International best practice and practical case studies in relation to reducing supply, demand and harm, and increasing resilience, health, and wellbeing
• The opportunities and challenges, in an Irish context, of reforming legislation, strategy, policy, and operational responses to drugs use, taking into consideration the implications for the health, criminal justice, and education systems.3 

What sources of information will the assembly use?
To inform its deliberations, the assembly will engage with experts in the field, including members of an Expert Advisory Group.4 It will also engage with stakeholders and the general public, including through a public consultation process, and by inviting selected speakers to participate in meetings of the assembly.4 It is expected that the assembly will avail of international evidence sources through the work of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, other EU member states, and the British–Irish Council work sector on drugs, which is chaired by Ireland. Given that members of the assembly must be over 18 years of age and that the issue of drugs also affects people below this age, the Minister of State initiated a consultation with young people ‘through Comhairle na nÓg and youth drug projects in disadvantaged areas, which will be presented to the Citizens’ Assembly for its consideration’.5

How will the assembly report its findings?
The assembly will draft a set of recommendations that will be voted on by its members. Those that pass the vote will be included in a report to the Oireachtas. This report will be referred to a committee comprising members of the Oireachtas and Seanad for consideration, with the committee bringing its conclusions to the Houses of the Oireachtas for debate. The Government is obliged to respond to each recommendation of the report in the Oireachtas. For recommendations that it accepts, it is obliged to set out a timeframe for their implementation.

1    Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party (2020) Programme for Government: our shared future. Dublin: Department of the Taoiseach. Available from: https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/32212/

2    For more information on the Citizens’ Assembly, visit: https://www.citizensassembly.ie/en/

3    Naughton H (2023) Parliamentary Debates Dáil Éireann. 21 February 2023. Vol. 1033, No. 6. Available from:
https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/38235/

4    Members of the Expert Advisory Group are: Jo-Hanna Ivers, associate professor in addiction, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and associate dean of civic engagement and social innovation at TCD; Philly McMahon, advocate for people affected by drugs use; Mary Cannon, professor of psychiatric epidemiology and youth mental health, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, and consultant psychiatrist at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin; Joe O’Neill, chair of the Western Region Drugs and Alcohol Task Force; Ann Ryan, retired judge of the District Court; Brian Galvin, programme manager for drug and alcohol research, Health Research Board; John Garry, professor of political behaviour, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) who leads the Democracy Unit at QUB. Available from: https://citizensassembly.ie/advisory-support-group-announced/

 5   Irish Government News Service (2023) Government agrees to establish a Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use [Press release]. 14 February 2023. Available from: https://merrionstreet.ie/en/newsroom/news/government_agrees_to_establish_a_citizens_assembly_on_drugs_use.175694.shortcut.html