Aodhán Ó’Ríordáin venting his frustration about both the Department of Justice and Health refusing to take responsibility for drug policy in Ireland
Maddening that my PQ to Minister for Justice about her reaction to Citizens Assembly on Drugs is disallowed because it should be for the Minister for Health.
But it is govt policy to criminalise possession so it is the Dept of Justice that can deliver #DECRIM.
Frustrating. pic.twitter.com/sDaTNnb8Qz
— Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (@AodhanORiordain) February 21, 2024
by gig1922
5 comments
Aodhan is a former Minister of State at the Department of Justice, and in that role played a huge part in moving responsibility for drugs policy to the Department of Health as part of a harm reduction “health led” approach.
It’s obviously not the case that all criminal matters are the responsibility of the Department of Justice. They deal with some criminal legislation, but obviously not all. There are financial crimes or crimes committed under the Companies Act that would be the responsibility of the Department of Enterprise, environmental crimes that are the responsibility of the Department of the Environment or the Department of Agriculture, offences related to the non-payment of tax that would be the responsibility of the Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners, and road traffic offences that are the responsibility of the Department of Transportation.
It wouldn’t make sense to have the Department of Justice answer questions on those matters as the policy responsibility for how the offences are structured and what counts as an offence are held by the Government Departments with responsibility for those areas. Health now holds policy responsibility for drugs policy, and the misuse of drugs act; Aodhan himself was a big part of making that happen.
Aodhan O’Geardáin. A vote for O’Ríor is a vote for the gear
He did a great documentary on drugs policy on RTÉ showing MQI injection centres about 15 years ago. He has consistently shown cop on with regard to drugs policy and we need more like him.
Aodhán Ó’Ríordáin is insufferable.
Departments don’t work together or seem to be communicating well at all across multiple issues.
I think this comes from ministers really under qualified and out of their Dept for the positions that they hold. Seems senior civil servants are left twiddling their thumbs with no direction.
A good example is O’Gormans Department of Integration completely making solo runs in relation to policy. No consultation with Department of Tourism or anyone else.