Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the motion. We have had statements from the Government, but there has not been much action proposed, which shows us how out of touch it is with regard to what is happening to young people. I heard Mr. Fergus Finlay speak recently on RTE about a report produced by Barnardos on young children. He mentioned that most young children now had a television set in their bedroom and spent more time in front of the television than they did talking to their parents. That is not good for children or family life.

Parents are under more pressure today, as they must work harder than before. They spend more time in their cars commuting and have less time to spend with their families because of the pressure. This affects children and society. The Government should consider how it can help such parents, particularly women who must go out to work. We should provide more flexible working conditions in order that they can spend more time at home with their children.

The greatest evil in terms of the harm it does in the home and society is drink. We are always afraid to condemn drinking because we are afraid of the vested interests, the publicans and drinks companies, which are a powerful lobby group. I have said this previously, but will repeat it now. Sports organisations should not accept sponsorship from drinks companies or promote them by displaying their names or advertisements at sports events. There is enough grant aid from the Government and enough support from the public to make it unnecessary for sports organisations to accept money from drinks companies. Drink has the country destroyed. It has been destroying it since the foundation of the State, but the situation is even worse now.

Drugs, the new phenomenon, are even more dangerous than drink. At least, we know the effect drink has on people. It affects the person drinking, families and family life. However, with drugs we find that people are out of their heads on the streets. As a result, there is a new type of violence. We talk about the national drugs strategy, on which I will have more to say in the debate next week, but I cannot understand how such quantities of drugs are being brought into the country, considering how we were able to track down those who had been operating offshore accounts for over 20 years. Drugs are being brought in daily. The Garda knows who the crime bosses are and the wealth they are earning from their businesses, but we have not targeted these criminals in the we should.

When Nora Owen was Minister for Justice there was a serious problem in regard to crime. We saw what happened in regard to the journalist who was murdered and we responded. We dealt with criminals. It is time a task force was set up and that criminals who are bringing in drugs and selling them to young people were targeted. Why do we let them away with it? Why is CAB not used to deal with these people? The problem is evident in all our communities. People who never worked a day in their life are driving around in BMWs, have the best of houses and some draw social welfare. Why are these people not targeted? Why are they not being looked at? Why do they not show the taxman where they are creating their wealth? They ruin children, society and the county and nothing is done about it.

The same applies to the drinks industry, which we are afraid to take on. We are afraid to take on the vested interests but it has to be done.

The Government has a job to do in getting more people involved in sport and in the community. In my town of Westport, for the past 30 years a young Independent councillor, Martin Keane, takes a group of young people every Saturday and Sunday and does great work for the voluntary sector. People like him are not honoured enough. He does not ask for anything, all he wants is that the young people are kept busy and out of trouble.

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