Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The point I made yesterday was that the level of drugs is played up when there is much statistical evidence that the national drugs strategy campaign has enjoyed success.

Deputy Kenny is suggesting a voluntary scheme in schools and if we are dealing with minors, the agreement of parents is necessary. If the parents, the board of management and the children agree, however, it is a matter for the board of management to decide, as is the case with any disciplinary code. Any indication that it would be compulsory would lead to difficulties. The Deputy did not say that but when I was asked about this before, I said that if minors were to be asked to undergo any testing, it would have to be done with the agreement of the parents. It is a matter of discipline for the school authorities to agree with the parents.

I asked last week if any reports had been published on this but I could not find any school operating such a system. If the Deputy has information about any school he wants to give me, I will look at it. There are several schemes where schools and boards of management are trying to deal with under age drinking and many of them have disciplinary codes that do not involve random testing but involve checks to monitor and control under age drinking. I could not find any schools checking for drugs.

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