Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

However, there is no point in my trying to suggest there are no criminal elements using different orders of boats to land drugs through any of our inlets and ports as we have had a number of such seizures in the past five years. The authorities have now caught a few hundred million euro worth of drugs. There have been seizures to the value of €40 million, €50 million and €100 million in this instance. Ireland is not alone in having a coastline, which is the reason the other countries are coming together to try to operate their intelligence and security, as they do through Interpol, to give the best information in this regard. The Deputy is correct there was no intelligence in this case and this seizure was made because of the weather conditions. It means that international intelligence agencies must also look at this.

Customs and excise and the Garda have special schemes and work with the coastal communities to try to seek information of this kind. Out of this, they have moved in on a big ring. Not alone have they got the individuals concerned, but they also have the vehicles in question and intelligence on where they believe the drugs were being moved from, which helps them in this operation. A few years ago, they caught a yacht off the west coast, which helped to close down that ring.

This is a lucrative market across Europe. This morning I read a report from the Lisbon base which states that there is probably no coastline around Europe through which criminal gangs are not trying to bring in drugs. Locations have recently been found in the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and France, from which hauls have been taken. We must watch our coastline and play our part. We are co-operating through all the organisations, such as Interpol, the World Customs Organisation, the United Nations International Drug Control Programme and the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency. The Garda liaises on a weekly basis with the authorities in London, Paris, the Hague and Madrid and with Interpol. The gardaí are involved in these locations, working on their own, some undercover and some as part of customs teams.

With such a huge industry which has so many sources in the world, one cannot say that the gardaí are on top of the problem. How can you say that? From our point of view, this incident raises a serious matter. From the point of view of the Garda, the Naval Service and customs, we must take account of what is an enormous amount of drugs. It does not matter which market it is for; it is damaging the lives of people. Some of the people involved could be in this country, but certainly there are people elsewhere in Europe. The 60 bales, with 25 kg of cocaine in each, have a street value of well over €100 million. If mixed, the value could be multiples of that amount. Everyone in the Government, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and all the agencies I have mentioned must step up on the action on this matter and take account of it.

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