Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It is not the evidence of educationalists, people involved in sports or the scouting organisations. I accept people are addicted to drugs but let us not try to use figures for those who might have sampled drugs once in their life and accuse them of being addicted.

Under the national drugs strategy, there are a number of dedicated school programmes aimed at tackling drug abuse. We should continue the social, personal and health education programme which is a curriculum subject at both primary and post-primary schools at junior level. They are dedicated modules that focus on the prevention of alcohol and drug abuse. I am in favour of everything that tries to give advice to people, makes them aware of issues and provides training. I can rattle off a significant amount of resources that are being spent every day by people working in these areas throughout the country. We have a good system trying to deal with the issue and good work has been done by the Garda Síochána. I congratulate the Garda Síochána on its work last night breaking an international ring in Kildare. It tries to stop those who make a living out of this, ruining the lives of our children. While we have problems like every Western society, a great amount of work is being done successfully and we should encourage it.

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