Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I too was in Thomond Park last night. I was approached there by a number of former colleagues from Garryowen rugby club and reminded of how deep an impact the recent murder of Shane Geoghegan has had on not just the sporting community in Limerick, but on his close friends.

We have a job to do in this House. We must provide an adequate and determined response from the State in terms of new thinking and a new approach towards assisting the Garda, where possible, in surveillance, in ensuring convictions are achieved to ensure tough prison terms and to combat drug trafficking and, most importantly, to target demand for illegal drugs.

I do not have much time this evening so I will concentrate on this area, in particular the demand for cocaine that is prevalent in Ireland currently. The drugs trade is no different to the arms trade or the trade in young women for prostitution. As long as there is a strong demand from users, vast sums of money can and will be made by meeting that demand illegally. No matter what policing resources are thrown at the drugs trade, drugs will continue to find their way into society as long as demand exists.

I want to put some facts on the record on drug use, particularly cocaine use, in Ireland. Some 5.3% of adults between the ages of 50 and 64 in Ireland have used cocaine, over 150,000 people. Some 25% of users use at least once per week. That is, 37,000 people use cocaine every week. Some 7% use cocaine every day, that is, more than 10,000 people use it on a daily basis. Some 23% of people personally know somebody taking cocaine, over 700,000 adults. There has been an increase of 50% in the number of professionals and executives seeking treatment in the past three years. This is not a problem of people in deprived areas. This is middle class Ireland.

People get cocaine at discos and night clubs, but mostly from their friends at house parties. In Limerick alone, the Garda has confiscated more than €3.5 million worth of cocaine this year. We have a problem. Innocent people are being killed because many, from all sectors of society, demand and use cocaine. Until the dinner parties in middle class homes are targeted as well as the toilets of night clubs, we will make no serious impact on the demand for and use of cocaine here. This demand fuels crime, violence and the murder machine that infects society through violent gangland crime.

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