The last time this was proposed — in 2006 — it was abandoned after the then justice minister Michael McDowell scuppered such a move, which had been agreed by the DPP and the gardaí.

The Adult Cautioning Scheme, operating outside the criminal courts, includes public order and drink- related offences, minor assaults and criminal damage.

The Irish Examiner understands the scheme is being examined to determine if it should be expanded to include possession of cannabis and possibly other drugs.

Sources said the matter was being “looked at” and followed on from last year’s United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS), which stated that countries should have mechanisms in place to divert people caught possessing drugs from the criminal justice system.

The Juvenile Cautioning Scheme includes offences all the way up to manslaughter.

The draft National Drugs Strategy (NDS) also envisages a HSE-run multi-tiered screening and brief intervention project.

Under tier 1, gardaí will refer people who they come across committing crime because of their drug or alcohol use to the programme.

The NDS is proposing that the wider issue of decriminalisation be referred to a high-level group for detailed research and examination.

It will use the Oireachtas Justice Committee report of October 2015 as its starting point. That report recommended the Government consider the Portuguese model, which involves decriminalisation.

During the NDS consultation, it was claimed that the type of health structure in the Portuguese model, called the Dissuasion Committee (which has power to compel users to attend), does not exist here.

The community and voluntary sector is pushing for an expansion of the Spent Convictions Act 2016, which allows for the erasure of a single criminal record if a person is crime-free for seven years. They want it expanded to a group of offences committed during a person’s drug addiction.