Jun 25, 2026 · 24 min · 9 segments
An Oireachtas committee spent years researching drug policy in Ireland and came back with a clear recommendation: decriminalise possession of all drugs for personal use, a shift from treating drug use…
Jane MatthewsPanelist
Ronan DuffyPanelist
Christine BohanHost
Now, there was a big report published by an Oireachtas committee this week, but for a number of reasons, partly because Oireachtas committees aren't always particularly sexy, partly because the hot weather is taking up a huge amount of oxygen this week.
So we're going to start by looking at what happened with the Oireachtas Committee on Drugs.
And it was also interesting for the way that the politicians on the committee, the nine TDs, the five senators, worked together on it.
And they were kind of very keen to point out that let's not all focus on the one recommendation that made headlines.
And that we're probably going to focus on now, but we'll speak about some of the others as well.
Yeah, like I said, like you said there, Christine, it's a cross-party committee like many others, but this was the Joint Committee on Drug Use.
And kind of the main recommendation that was spoken about was this recommendation to government that possession of drugs for personal use should be decriminalised.
So that was kind of another one of the recommendations that, you know, sometimes have been talked about to break it out into separate drugs, but no, but this should apply for all substances.
And, you know, decriminalisation, you know, I think we've been here before, you know, we've had a justice committee that's made a similar recommendation, I think it was about four years ago.
The Citizens Assembly initially made this recommendation that led to this joint committee.
But the decriminalisation, you know, and I think it's a word that, you know, it's not confusing, but I think people kind of take it up the wrong way.
Now, there was a big report published by an Oireachtas committee this week, but for a number of reasons, partly because Oireachtas committees aren't always particularly sexy, partly because the hot weather is taking up a huge amount of oxygen this week.
So we're going to start by looking at what happened with the Oireachtas Committee on Drugs.
And it was also interesting for the way that the politicians on the committee, the nine TDs, the five senators, worked together on it.
And they were kind of very keen to point out that let's not all focus on the one recommendation that made headlines.
And that we're probably going to focus on now, but we'll speak about some of the others as well.
Yeah, like I said, like you said there, Christine, it's a cross-party committee like many others, but this was the Joint Committee on Drug Use.
And kind of the main recommendation that was spoken about was this recommendation to government that possession of drugs for personal use should be decriminalised.
So that was kind of another one of the recommendations that, you know, sometimes have been talked about to break it out into separate drugs, but no, but this should apply for all substances.
And, you know, decriminalisation, you know, I think we've been here before, you know, we've had a justice committee that's made a similar recommendation, I think it was about four years ago.
The Citizens Assembly initially made this recommendation that led to this joint committee.
But the decriminalisation, you know, and I think it's a word that, you know, it's not confusing, but I think people kind of take it up the wrong way.
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