Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I want to deal with this from the perspective of prevention and treatment. I commend the gardaí for the work they are doing in this area. I endorse the point Deputy English made that this is only the tip of the iceberg. I have spoken to gardaí both in Dublin and in my constituency. Drugs sales on the streets of Dublin are a non-stop, 24-hour operation. The gardaí arrest the peddlers and bring them to court, but by the end of the day the same people are back selling on the streets. There are units of the gardaí in this city that do not have 24-hour cover for their drugs squads. Those peddling drugs know that the gardaí cannot possibly deal with the situation on that basis.

In 2004, An Garda Síochána had two drugs trained sniffer dogs in the whole country. These dogs had to be booked in advance. What was one to do if one wanted to conduct a drugs search in south-west Cork? Book the dogs two weeks in advance and hope that the ship landed on that particular night? It is just not practical. Gardaí cannot do their jobs with such resources. I know there are now a few extra dogs but it is no more than a handful.

There must also be an attitudinal change regarding drugs. This is not a criticism of the Government. There is still an assumption that drugs are a phenomenon restricted to disadvantaged areas, and I acknowledge that it is particularly severe in some areas. However, it is just as much a middle-class problem as anything else. I link it to the notion of child pornography. Just because someone does not see the child in front of them does not mean the child has not suffered elsewhere in making the pornographic material. Likewise, just because an individual is not breaking into someone's home to fund their drug habit does not mean that the consequences for communities are any less. I do not think the public sufficiently accepts this principle. People think it is all right if they are using drugs in the privacy of their own sitting rooms. It is not right and the consequences are just the same.

My biggest criticism is the lack of treatment places. I know people in my constituency of Laois-Offaly who have been on a treatment waiting list for a year. I have met mothers whose sons and daughters have agreed to go on a treatment programme. They go through the hoops only to discover they will have to wait a year to get on the programme. Those parents fear their children will die before they get onto a programme. It is difficult to give a real answer to those people. I cannot give them any words of comfort. I cannot help them skip up a place on the treatment programme waiting list because someone else will lose out. The doctor in the Laois-Offaly treatment centre spends a day and a half in Portlaoise, another day and a half in Athlone, and the rest of the time is spent catching up on paperwork. He cannot take any more patients because of safety considerations and no other doctor is willing to come in. There is no point in shrugging our shoulders; it is a problem we have to address. We must put doctors in place by whatever means.

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