New Oireachtas committee on drugs use is expected to produce interim reports

Members of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use participating in a workshop in Malahide, Co Dublin last year. Picture Maxwell’s 

The newly-established Oireachtas committee on drugs use is expected to produce “interim reports” so at least some of its work on the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use is “not lost” if a general election is called.

The establishment of the committee was announced by the Government following the launch of the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use report at the end of last January.

In the middle of February, then taoiseach Leo Varadkar said a special joint committee would be set up, rather than using an existing committee.

He said he expected it to be set up by March and certainly no later than April.

However, the first meeting — in private — was only held last week. A further private meeting is expected early next week, where a work plan will be agreed, with the first public session expected that Thursday.

Paul Reid is expected to be the first witness to appear before the new Oireachtas committee on drugs use. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews

Members of the committee have been asked to suggest possible witnesses to be called.

The committee is charged with considering the Citizens' Assembly report and provide a reasoned response to each of the 36 recommendations. It shall report to both houses of the Oireachtas within seven months of the first public meeting.

This would give the committee a deadline of the start of December. If the Government continues to its limit, next March, that won’t be an issue, unless the committee doesn’t sit through the summer.

Many political experts predict a general election could be held in October or November.

Once the Government receives the Oireachtas report it is supposed to give its formal response to the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use.

Sources suggest that the committee is likely to produce “interim” reports before the deadline for a final report. This is to ensure that the work done by the Oireachtas will not be lost if an election is announced. One source said: 

There is no wish to rehash the Citizens’ Assembly report. 

However, the report deliberately left it in the hands of the Oireachtas to figure out how its recommendations in relation to the effective decriminalisation of drugs for personal use should, or can, be implemented.

“Given the important legal and constitutional issues to be considered, the Citizens’ Assembly views it as the responsibility of the Oireachtas, informed by legal advice and detailed pre-legislative scrutiny, to determine the most appropriate legal mechanisms to achieve this goal,” the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use report said.

This also places on onus on a subsequent Oireachtas committee tasked with conducting the pre-legislative scrutiny of legal proposals from the relevant department.

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It is understood that the first witness before the Oireachtas drugs committee will be Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use chairman Paul Reid, with a second meeting involving the Department of Health and the Department of Justice.

The Department of Justice and An Garda Síochána, were against legal changes amounting to decriminalisation during the Citizens' Assembly hearings.

It is not clear if the committee will hold detailed hearings on the legislative issues with various legal, criminology and drug policy experts.