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Speaker: Ian Ó Concubhair
Chair: Ian Marder
Over the past decade, a citizens’ assembly model has been developed and deployed by the Irish Government to address a number of contentious and/or complex legal and policy questions. In October 2023, Ireland completed its most recent experiment with policy development by way of deliberative democracy. This time, the agenda was drug policy. ¨
The role of policing in the perpetration of the Irish state’s own five-decade-long ‘war on drugs’ was, inevitably, a point of discussion for the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use. Unfortunately, despite the central role of policing in Irish drug policy, the Assembly’s focus of attention to the question was fleeting.
This presentation outlines the Assembly’s treatment of policing and the contributions of senior officers from Ireland’s national police force, An Garda Síochána, to the process. The presentation then offers some reflections on why the Assembly gave such an impoverished assessment of drugs policing in Ireland, including the dearth of evidence and research on the topic.
The session will be chaired by Dr. Ian Marder (Assistant Professor in Criminology, Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology), who will also provide a brief response before facilitating a Q&A.
Dr Cian Ó Concubhair is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in Maynooth University, School of Law and Criminology. Cian teaches modules in criminal law and policing at Maynooth, and researches police governance, accountability and legitimacy, police-media relations, the politics of policing, the policing of social movements, and criminal law.
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