An Cathaoirleach (Gary Gannon): I am delighted to welcome everyone to the first public meeting of the Joint Committee on Drugs Use. The committee will have nine months to carry out its work and I look forward to engaging with a wide range of stakeholders and having insightful contributions on this most important topic.

I welcome our witnesses who will engage with us later in this meeting. You are all very welcome. For those watching in we have: Mr. Andy O'Hara, co-ordinator, and Ms Annmarie Dunphy, peer worker, from Uisce drug support; Senator Frances Black from the RISE Foundation; Ms Cindy Barry, family support worker and Ms Gwen McKenna, director and co-founder, from the Family Addiction Support Network; Ms Yvonne Lyones, participant and peer researcher and Mr. Joe Slattery, co-ordinator, from the Northstar Family Support Project; Ms Anita Harris, deputy head of services, and Ms Suzanne Tackaberry, recovery intern, from the Coolmine therapeutic community; and Ms Aileen Malone and Mr. Michel Mason from Family Addiction Recovery Ireland.

Our agenda items today were sent in advance. As this is our first public session and before we begin, I must make a Cathaoirleach's declaration. It is very exciting. I do solemnly declare that I will duly and faithfully, and to the best of my knowledge and ability, execute the office of Cathaoirleach of the Joint Committee on Drugs Use without fear or favour, apply the rules as laid down by the House in an impartial and fair manner, maintain order and uphold the rights and privileges of members in accordance with the Constitution and with Standing Orders.

I will now turn to privilege. All witnesses and members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable, or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to the identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that they comply with any such direction.

I remind members of the constitutional requirements that in order to participate in public meetings, members must be physically present within the confines of the Leinster House complex. Members of this committee attending remotely must do so from within the precincts of Leinster House. This is due to the constitutional requirement that in order to participate in public meetings members have to be physically present within the confines of the places where the Parliament has chosen to sit. In this regard I ask any member partaking via MS Teams that prior to making his or her contributions to the meeting he or she confirms that he or she is on the grounds of the Leinster House campus.

I will make some opening remarks as this is our first public session this afternoon. I am genuinely proud to take up the role as the Chair of this committee. My very first involvement in politics was very obviously not in Leinster House but was as a community representative on the local north east inner city drugs and alcohol task force. For me in many ways this does feel like coming full circle. The fight against the devastation caused by addiction has always been close to my heart. It is the work of communities that first inspired me to get involved in public life. The Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use was one of the most significant and thorough examinations of our national drugs policy the State has ever undertaken. Hundreds of people gave their time, their expertise and, in many cases, their lived experience to ensure this country finally had an honest reckoning with the failures and the possibilities of our approach. I wish to place on record my gratitude to those assembly members, to the advocates, and to the families who contributed, and to the members of the previous Oireachtas committee who laid so much of the groundwork that we now see in front of us. Their work should not sit on the shelf. It should shape the future of how we respond - with compassion, evidence and courage - to the realities of drug use in Ireland today.

In the short time since the committee was established we have been extremely busy as a committee. Amongst our different engagements we have listened to families, to the service providers, and to the front-line workers. All of us on this committee have seen up close the scale of the challenge but also the extraordinary resilience and compassion in communities right across the country. That work is ongoing and it deserves the space to breathe. This is why I want to raise a concern at the outset. We are told that a new national drugs strategy is to be published in full before the end of this year, which will be months before this committee has even concluded its hearings and produced its recommendations. To me this simply does not make sense. It risks cutting across the voices of advocates, experts and community leaders who have been waiting for this opportunity to be heard. My hope and my appeal to the Department is that what is published this year can be treated as an interim framework while this committee is undergoing our work, and that it remains open to the findings and the recommendations that will be made from this committee. This is because for those processes to be real and inclusive, I believe that any substantive findings from this committee must be incorporated into the national drug strategy.

I again welcome our witnesses as we begin engagement on our first module and our first hearing in public session. All the opening statements have been circulated to members in advance and will be published on the Oireachtas website after this session. As agreed, we will limit each opening statement to three minutes. I hope this will allow all the witnesses to answer questions from members following that. Our first witness is Mr. O'Hara from Uisce....

[Click here to view the full debate on the Oireachtas site or here to view the video recording and read opening statement documents]