Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)

They even do deliveries to pubs and estates. One can stand in estates and watch people going to collect their drugs. That is how obvious it is, yet these people who are known to gardaí cannot be touched. There is something seriously wrong there.

RAPID is also part of the Minister of State's responsibilities. We recently discussed where the money is being spent and while it is sometimes hard to follow where the money is going and what results are being achieved, it seems to be working in some areas. However, the planning of our housing estates is bringing us down the same route again. Houses are been thrown in all over the place. We have not learned from experience. In years to come, RAPID areas will be three times the size they are now if we do not learn from the mistakes we made in the past. Young people need a community — not just hundreds of houses built in estate after estate — with facilities they can access at an affordable price. This is not happening. Instead, we are creating more areas for drug dealers to peddle death. We are not tackling it properly.

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