Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

Does the Minister agree that the most worrying fact in the statistics issued by the Central Statistics Office, and I welcome the involvement of the CSO in crime figures analysis and presentation, was the increase of 25.8% — more than a quarter — in the number of possession of drugs for sale or supply offences? Obviously, interdicted drugs are all that manifest themselves, and I publicly welcome the vigilance of the gardaí in some of the biggest seizures of drugs in the history of the State in the past few months, but will the Minister indicate to the House the accepted norm, that is, the relationship between interdicted drugs and the volume of drugs available in society? I understand there is an internationally acceptable multiplier. If the Minister has that multiplier, will he give it to the House so that we might have some view of the scale of the drugs problem?

Does the Minister further accept that drugs are now the biggest single issue in regard to crime in this country? Will he accept that the crime gangs are the biggest threat to public order in this country now that we have moved beyond criminality in terms of violence dressed up in the national cause? Does the Minister share the nation's horror, and mine, that a five-year-old child would be shot in a housing estate in the third city of our nation recently? Does the Minister have specific ongoing measures to put in place to ensure that the violence being perpetrated by drug gangs in this State is faced down and eliminated?

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