Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

People are worried and there should be more openness around the way drugs are disposed of in this country. Certain allegations have been made to me and I would like some public input into the way drugs are disposed of.

Many people complained that the last national drugs strategy did not target the people who needed it most. I hope the Minister of State will learn from that because the problem is even more serious now. More people than ever are taking drugs. Those working in the area feel that we were targeting a very limited number of people and that the strategy did not really work. I hope we have learned lessons from the last strategy. We must do more with regard to the targeting of people. We must broaden our horizon on the amount of people taking drugs and not pretend we do not have a problem. We have a serious problem. We probably have the biggest drug problem in Europe.

Yesterday I watched a television programme on BBC which dealt with drugs entering the UK. The authorities undertook an operation that went on for six months. Hundreds of police officers were involved and a massive amount of drugs was seized. They also arrested the people who were supplying the drugs. However, they only caught some of those involved in the trade, which will not stop the drug trafficking. Nevertheless, we must do something like that here.

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