223. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration if he will enact the recommendations relevant to his Department outlined in the Joint Committee on Drugs Use Interim Report published on 22 October 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13120/26]

Jim O'Callaghan, Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: The Government’s strategic approach in relation to the misuse of drugs is set out in Ireland’s National Drug Strategy, ‘Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery’, a health-led response to drug and alcohol use in Ireland 2017-2025. The strategy is led by my colleagues in the Department Health, Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Minister of State Jennifer Murnane O’Connor.

The Strategy recognises the need for a balanced health-led approach to reducing demand, while also reducing access to illegal drugs, and is aimed at reducing the number of people criminalised for the possession of drugs for personal use. While this Strategy supports vulnerable people who use drugs, it is also matched with strengthened enforcement measures across Government to tackle the supply of illegal drugs.

This represents a whole-of-Government response to reducing demand and associated harms, while balancing this with limiting access to illegal drugs to the greatest extent possible.

My Department is fully committed to helping to significantly reduce the harms caused to families and communities by illicit drug use. The three main policy objectives we are seeking to achieve in this area are:

• tackling organised crime,
• minimising the harms caused to those with addiction issues, and
• diverting people from involvement in crime and illicit drug related activity.

Officials from my Department have engaged with the Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use to 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.

The Department of Health and the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration have devised a Health Diversion Scheme for individuals in possession of drugs for personal use, within the existing legal framework. The scheme will facilitate members of An Garda Síochána to connect participants with health services, thereby diverting suitable individuals away from a route towards custody and offering them a pathway towards treatment and recovery. The operational aspects of the scheme are currently being finalised and the scheme is expected to commence in the near future.

The Health Diversion Scheme is in line with the recommendation of the Citizens Assembly on Drug Use for a comprehensive health-led response to drug use. While the possession of controlled drugs would remain illegal, people found to be in possession for personal use would be afforded, first and foremost, extensive opportunities to engage voluntarily with healthcare services.

Separately, the Government is preparing a response to the 36 recommendations of the Citizens Assembly, taking into account the report of the Joint Committee on Drug Use, which will form the building blocks of the new national drugs strategy.

It is the Government’s ambition that the next national drugs strategy will support a society where the use of drugs is decreased, drug-related harms are reduced, and recovery from drug dependency is supported. The draft National Drugs Strategy 2026-2029 was published earlier this month by Minister of State Jennifer Murnane O’Connor and I understand that her Department plans to commence a public consultation on the draft Strategy shortly.