Cyprian Brady (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this important debate on an issue that touches everyone's life. I wish to deal with a particular issue but, first, I urge the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to continue to invest resources and equipment to fight crime. Much has been achieved in the past ten years, as the Minister said. We have taken on the criminal gangs and crime lords that eat away at the heart of homes and communities in every walk of life. We have increased the number of gardaí serving our communities. We have new laws to tackle a number of crimes such as anti-social behaviour, drug pushing and armed attacks. We have also invested in major crime prevention programmes, in one of which, the youth diversion programme, I have a particular interest. That scheme is making a difference to more than 20,000 young people every year. The programme allows gardaí to decide if a child charged with a crime can be helped to stay away from crime and to help him or her to achieve that aim.

I wish to make it clear to the House that all these crimes have one common thread, the illegal drugs trade. The importing and pushing of cocaine, ecstasy and heroin in Ireland is behind all major crime here. Parts of the constituency I represent have one of the highest rates of gangland related shootings in the country, and the previous speaker referred to this in regard to her area. Numerous murders and attempted murders have taken place and during one period recently an incident occurred almost everyday, some in broad daylight with adults and children in the vicinity going about their daily business.

All these crimes are linked to the drugs trade. The gardaí have had huge successes in seizing shipments of drugs. The drugs trade is a lucrative business, estimated, on the seizures that have been made, to be worth more than €1 billion per year. It is also accepted that almost every shipment of illegal drugs that is brought into the country is accompanied by a supply of guns and ammunition. Our task, as public representatives, is to work with the gardaí, hospitals, schools and treatment centres as they help thousands of people of all ages in every village, town and city.

We have invested in the key areas to help those who are affected by drug addiction through the five pillars of the drugs strategy. Government investment and the tremendous work of volunteer groups have helped thousands of young people to overcome drug addiction. Our education and training programmes have also contributed to making sure that young people turn their backs on illegal drugs. However, we can never sit on our laurels when it comes to tackling crime. When the Garda Síochána successfully put a crime lord behind bars, unfortunately there are five or six others read to take his place, and these replacements are becoming younger.

In recent years we have witnessed how vicious and ruthless the new wave of ganglords are compared to their counterparts in the 1980s or 1990s. We live in a society where criminals do not have any respect for their own lives, never mind for anybody else's life, and are quite prepared to shoot to kill anybody for even the most trivial reasons.

I heard the references in the debate to the shooting of Garda Sherlock in Ossory Road in my constituency of Dublin Central. That is a prime example of the ruthlessness of criminals today. I am delighted that Garda Sherlock is on the mend and is now at home recovering. He was extremely lucky.

While I have painted a grim picture of the problem, I would like to make it clear that the work of the people and the organisations that help people with drug problems has made a huge difference.

Having served the people of Dublin Central for almost 20 years, I have seen communities in the north inner city where two and three generations of families have suffered the devastation of drug addiction and have picked themselves up and worked to improve not only their quality of life but the quality of life in their communities. They are a credit to society, an example to all of us that if we work together we can sort out the problems.

As I stated, statistics show that every shipment of illegal drugs coming into this country is accompanied by a shipment of guns and other automatic weapons. Statistics also show that the majority of illegal drugs in Ireland find their way here from countries such as Afghanistan and Columbia. Despite efforts by the EU to get the governments of those countries to stop the production and smuggling of these drugs, the amounts arriving in Ireland continue to increase every week, as they do throughout Europe. I have met senior officials in the EU with responsibility for drugs issues. They will readily admit that in Afghanistan in 2006 there was a record crop of the poppy plant, which ultimately results in the production of heroin. According to all sources, the supply of cocaine is about to explode throughout Europe. Prices for it have fallen on the street and, therefore, it is more accessible to more people. There is no substitute treatment for cocaine, as there is methadone for heroin. Therefore, we are storing up a huge problem for the future. As long as there is a constant flow of these drugs into this country, we will always have vulnerable young people who will try them and become addicted to them.

The successes achieved by the gardaí, communities, hospitals, schools and treatment centres are all down to a commitment by everybody concerned to work together to make the change happen.

I urge the Ministers for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and Foreign Affairs and the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs to call on the European Union to take a leaf out of the books of these communities in Dublin city centre and to work together, as they do, to prevent drugs from coming into their areas. Steps have been taken throughout Europe and I am aware that the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, was in Lisbon this week to sign a treaty to establish a new European centre, the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre for Narcotics, to tackle the increasing shipments of cocaine particularly into Europe from South and Latin America. The European Union provides up to €6 billion a year to the Afghanistan Government to implement programmes to stop the production of illegal drugs, but this has not worked. We need the Ministers to put pressure on the European Union to stop funding going to Afghanistan. It has failed to deliver any result year after year. I urge Ministers to get the European Union to divert the €6 billion to Ireland and other countries in Europe to help us increase measures to stop the drugs coming into our countries on boats and planes, to shore up security at EU borders and to enhance treatment, education and prevention measures.

If we can reduce or stop the flow of drugs into the country, we will reduce the number of crime lords living lavish lifestyles on the backs of drug addicts. We will see increased rewards and sustainable benefit for the time, effort and commitment of the thousands of people working in drug addiction prevention and treatment throughout the country. By reducing addiction we will automatically reduce the level and ferocity of crime.

In the meantime, I ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to continue to invest in initiatives that will help young people turn their backs on crime. By managing investment in prevention, treatment and education at local, national and European level we can make a difference and reduce the flow of drugs and the number of crime lords in every country in the European Union. I was delighted to be assured that commitment will continue and the drugs strategy and other initiatives taken to tackle crime will be supported into the future.

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