Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I compliment the Independent Deputies for putting together this very important and relevant motion on the drugs crisis. Irrespective of anything the Minister of State with responsibility for drugs strategy said last night, or what the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform says on a regular basis, the situation has continued to deteriorate over the years. It has not been improving at all. More drugs are seized, more sectors of the community are experiencing drug use, more people are using drugs and more new drugs than ever before are coming on the market.

The use of the Liffey boardwalk in Dublin for drug pushing during the summer highlighted the extent of the problem in just one area. In a three-month period the Garda arrested over 400 people on the boardwalk under the Misuse of Drugs Act. That provides a pin picture of the situation.

The quantity of drugs seized in recent months is greater than at any time in the history of the State. Clearly, the drug barons are stocking up well for Christmas. A consignment of heroin worth €7 million was seized in Ratoath, County Meath last month. A consignment worth €10 million was intercepted in Belgium en route by private jet to a private airfield, Weston Aerodrome this month. A consignment of at least €10 million was seized yesterday in Northern Ireland and it is widely believed it was intended for this jurisdiction. When it is considered that only 5% to 10% of all drugs imported into this country are seized by the Garda and Customs and Excise, it is clear the illegal drug market in Ireland is worth well in excess of €1 billion.

When it is further considered that there are an estimated 15,000 drug addicts in the country and that an estimated 75% of inmates in Mountjoy Prison are there for drug-related offences — as Governor Lonergan tells us on a regular basis — we have some idea of the amount of crime being committed to feed addictions, the cost to the taxpayer and the human cost to victims against whom crimes are perpetrated.

The opportunity to tackle the heroin problem, which the motion specifically deals with, existed for about 15 years, from 1979 until 1993-94. It was confined to the capital up to about 1994 and remained a Dublin problem, almost exclusively, for 15 years. A window of opportunity existed, while local disadvantaged communities got little help from the authorities and attempted to fight back. With the failure to address the issue in the capital, the virtual immunity from prosecution of the drug barons and the increasing wealth being generated from the illegal drugs trade, the problem spread rapidly throughout the provinces in the mid-1990s, as the Celtic tiger began to appear. The arrogance of the drug barons culminated in the murder of Ms Veronica Guerin in 1996. While they were then targeted by the Garda drug units and the Criminal Assets Bureau and had to flee the jurisdiction, they were still able to direct their activities from Spain and the Netherlands. They have continued to prosper since they left and have established networks throughout the country. This means that every drug which comes into the country can be distributed in every province. Moreover, they have become exceedingly dangerous. Gangland feuds and turf wars are the order of the day. The Minister tells us, of course, that he is well in control of the situation — the dying sting of the wasp. A couple of years ago he had it all under of control, but it is still the order of the day. Weapons are now being imported with drug consignments and dissident and redundant paramilitaries from the Northern Ireland conflict are using their skills increasingly as enforcers in the illegal drugs trade in this jurisdiction.

The drugs trade is effectively out of the control of the authorities. They have an uphill battle to try to control it. There is little interest or leadership at Government level, only lip service and sound bites from the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. None of the pillars of the national drugs strategy is being effectively implemented. These are supply reduction, prevention, treatment and research. Likewise, the new pillar that has recently been added to the strategy, namely, rehabilitation, is starved of resources. A whole new approach is required if our young people are to be protected from the scourge of drugs and our citizens and communities from drug-related crime.

We need to restate and reaffirm the strategy already in existence and we must fund its five pillars with the necessary resources and personnel to carry out the programme and to assist, in particular, the local drugs task forces. We must build up our communities, which are still blighted despite a decade of the Celtic tiger, and which provide lucrative markets for drug pushers. The revitalising of areas by planning, investment and development programmes — RAPID — must be reactivated and revamped. This programme promised an injection of €2 billion from the national development plan to target blighted and disadvantaged communities, to provide child care services, after-school support, leisure facilities, employment opportunities for young people leaving school and so on. That was in 2002, before the election. As the Minister of State well knows, it never materialised and now it has degenerated into the odd drip hand-out of dormant funds here and there from the slush funds of various Ministers, in particular the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív, and the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern.

Not only must we be tough on the causes of drug addiction, we must be tough on the pushers of drugs. The moneys seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau must be reinvested in the blighted communities from which they have been extracted. The addicts, whose lives have been wasted and the victims on whom criminal acts have been perpetrated, should see their areas benefit from the drug barons' ill-gotten gains that have been seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau. Finally, Garda drug units must develop a much more sophisticated approach to controlling the supply of drugs. They must map out their areas of responsibility, target and monitor the dealers and their networks, be ready to swoop when a consignment arrives and be sufficiently knowledgeable to target and prevent the importation of such consignments. A 10% success rate is not enough. Community policing is an essential element; it is the eyes and ears of the police force. It is imperative that a meaningful structure of community policing is immediately established. The treatment by the Garda authorities of community policing as the Cinderella of the police force must be radically changed.

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