Proposals from an Oireachtas committee to decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use will not be followed by the Government, several senior figures have indicated.Ministers have signalled caution about the committee’s proposals since their publication last week, but privately a series of senior figures in both parties said decriminalisation will not be implemented in the lifetime of the current Coalition.Both Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris are said by sources familiar with their views to have significant reservations about the proposals.Harris, who has repeatedly argued that occasional or recreational drug users should understand that they are funding gangland criminality, is understood to be strongly opposed to decriminalisation.“We will not be doing this,” said one senior figure definitively. While a pledge to decriminalise possession of drugs for personal use was included in the Fianna Fáil manifesto at the last general election, the party quickly made clear during the campaign that it did not intend this pledge to extend to drugs such as cocaine and heroin. However, senior party sources confirmed there was no intention to push forward with the recommendations for decriminalisation in the committee’s report.One person familiar with the area said gardaí rarely if ever prosecuted people for possession of small amounts of drugs, preferring to refer people to health authorities.In the Dáil last week, the Taoiseach said the State had in effect moved to a “health-led” approach on drugs.He said there would be discussions with the departments of Health and Justice over the recommendations in the committee’s report. [ Possession of all drugs for personal use should be decriminalised, committee recommendsOpens in new window ]Later, both Harris and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan warned of the need for caution on the question of decriminalisation, while the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, said “no change is proposed to the Misuse of Drugs Act”.The Oireachtas committee on drug use published its final report last Wednesday, containing 161 recommendations which it said were aimed at moving Ireland towards a health-led, rather than criminal, approach to drug possession.With decriminalisation, drugs would remain illegal but a person found in possession of them for personal use would not receive a criminal sanction.Its recommendations also included measures aimed at improving family and community supports, addressing intergenerational trauma and introducing an overhaul of legal and policy issues.It argued that decriminalisation of possession for personal use should apply equally to all illicit drugs. People found in possession of drugs “should be offered all supports and health resources that are required”, the report said.Labour, the Social Democrats, the Green and Sinn Féin all welcomed the report and said the Government must move to implement its recommendations. [ People ‘should not be criminalised’ for having drugs for personal use, WHO lead saysOpens in new window ]Labour TD Marie Sherlock, who was a member of the committee, said it had examined the matter in detail, taking into account the views of many experts over months of hearings. “The war on drugs has failed. It is time for Government to admit that. Our report is crystal clear: addiction and substance misuse are deeply intertwined with poverty, intergenerational trauma, social exclusion and educational disadvantage,” she said. “Our current approach is causing deep harm and marginalisation and is simply the wrong response to a complex problem. The report recognises that we should not criminalise people who are experiencing substance use disorders.“Our report cannot become another document that sits on a shelf.”