Special Committee Misuse of Drugs Bill, 1973 debate -
Tuesday, 6 Apr 1976

Procedure

Mr. Esmonde

Before we go into the business of this Committee I want to refer to an article which appeared in The Irish Independent on 16th March, 1976. It was an article by a Mr. Kevin Moore, on page 3, headed “New Moves to Liberate the ‘Drug of Youth’—New Push to Legalise ‘Pot’.” From my reading of that article it lumps all the members of this Committee into that heading, to the effect that we are all in favour of it. I want to make it quite clear that I am not a “potty pro-pot man”, as this article would have the public to believe, that all of us are on this Committee. I want to make it quite clear because there is no exception made in relation to the way the various members of this Committee are dealt with in that article. I regard the article as irresponsible, not researched, not relevant to the facts as have occurred at this Committee‘s meetings to date, or taking account of the attitudes of the individual members that take part in this Committee and their discussions.

I hope we do not have a repetition of that type of article.

Minister for Health (Mr. Corish)

Have we any control over this article?

Mr. Esmonde

I think it is right for any individual Deputy to declare what are his colours. He has also got the right to protect himself from being misrepresented. I regard myself as being greatly misrepresented in this article.

Chairman

The only point I would make is that the full verbatim reports of the proceedings of this Committee are available to the public and the Press as indeed will Deputy Esmonde's statement in due course, so it would be a matter for the public to judge.

Mr. Esmonde

I think the public would know what my attitude was, but for fear that somebody would be misrepresented——

Chairman

Your views are on the record.

Mr. Haughey

One member of the Committee wants to absolve himself from any accusations made in the Press. I hope that it will not be taken as the rest of accepting the accusations. But, in so far as we do not deem it worth our while to protest about any article, that does not mean we accept what is in it.

Mr. Briscoe

I agree with this. I agree with Deputy Esmonde that it was a complete misrepresentation of the views of this Committee. I am reading this for the first time. It says that the Committee, made up of seven Government and six Opposition Deputies, are favourably disposed towards this view of the legalising of "pot", all drugs. That is on the fourth line from the bottom of the third paragraph.

Mr. Haughey

The only thing that I might add is that one correspondent in The Irish Times reports the proceedings of this Committee in a very accurate and intelligent way and anybody interested in the proceedings of this Committee reading his reports will know exactly what goes on here.

Mr. Esmonde

I agree with Deputy Haughey that there has been sensible reporting on the facts as they occur.

Chairman

Fair enough.