Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I would like the House and the Government to send out the message that they are really serious and deadly serious about the issue of drugs. I guarantee the Taoiseach that Fine Gael will support Government initiatives aimed at dealing with drug dealers and those who break the law. I agree with the Taoiseach that it is not all down to the Garda. However, Garda activity did not prevent 92% of the toilets which were investigated by "Prime Time Investigates" from showing traces of cocaine. It is not bringing an end to the influx of drugs into this country. It is not stopping people from making starter ecstasy tablets available to young people for €2.50. It has not averted the sale of heroin on the streets of Dublin and other cities and towns. It is not discouraging those who are snorting cocaine as we speak. The message being sent out by the Government is that while we have had some spectacular successes — drugs worth €100 million were found off Mizen Head — we have not done anything to stem the flow of the drugs problem.

Perhaps the soft social perception of the respectability of cocaine use will not be jolted out of its lethargy until a high-profile personality is jailed for cocaine use. We recall the effect of the jailing of Lester Piggott, for different reasons, in England some years ago. People will begin to sit up and take notice of just how serious Government — with a capital G — can be. Speaking yesterday to 300 young people, I understood that nobody among them — I agree with the Taoiseach in this regard — wants to take something with rat poison or other mixing agents in it. Would anybody eat a slice of ham off the cistern of a toilet? Why would they put cocaine powder on an unclean cistern and snort it? Is it bravado, peer pressure or absence from reality? We must show that the Government is serious about dealing with drugs by building on the platform of the Minister of State, Deputy Carey, as a Cabinet initiative and sending out the message that the Taoiseach will lead a Cabinet charge to deal with this.

The Taoiseach mentioned one point that I know is a problem. When setting up this Cabinet initiative, the Government should call in club owners and publicans. They are given commercial licences to sell alcohol and the vast majority run their businesses in a respectable fashion. However, they have a problem in assessing the conditions or requirements for the entry of persons on to their premises. There have been instances in which people have taken legal cases because they were refused entry to a public premises. Will the Taoiseach consider the Equal Status Act 2000 and related Acts which cause difficulty for publicans or club owners where they might suspect that someone is dealing in drugs or is likely to be taking drugs? Equally, the Taoiseach should send out a clear message that premises in which drug dealing is known to be tolerated, as distinct from going on unbeknownst to the owners, will be closed down.

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