John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to address the House this evening. I will focus on the drug related matters raised during this debate.

The Government remains resolutely committed to tackling the drugs issue. Problem drug use continues to be one of the most significant challenges facing us. It has the potential to devastate the lives of the individuals involved, as well as those of their families, and to cause serious problems for whole communities. We must examine the problem in the wider context in which it takes place, and take cognisance of the fact that the demand for and the use of illegal drugs is what fuels the drugs trade. The measures we put in place to address the problem must take account of this.

The national drugs strategy for 2009-16 has been developed in partnership with a wide range of Departments and agencies, together with the community and voluntary sectors. Real partnership is evident across the initiatives of the national drugs strategy at national, regional and local level. The approach of sustained inter-agency and inter-sector work is very effective in addressing many areas affected by the drugs problem. In fact, it is the very basis of the Government's interim national drugs strategy and this fundamentally underpins all of my work and that of the drugs office. Nobody in the Government under estimates the challenge of the problem, as drug abuse is a societal ill faced by all countries of the developed world. That is why we place such emphasis on having a co-ordinated and integrated approach in place.

The strategy brings together all the elements of our response to drugs misuse in a co-ordinated manner and will deliver results through the implementation of its 63 specific actions and its related key performance indicators. The new structures recently put in place under the strategy to oversee and co-ordinate all of our efforts such as the new office for the Minister of State with responsibility for drugs and the oversight forum on drugs are already bedded down and working well. The continued roles and contribution made by our local and regional drug task forces, backed up by the research expertise of our national advisory committee on drugs, also remain key as part of our collective response.

In excess of €31 million has been made available to fund the activities of drugs task forces in 2010. Despite the overall reduction in funding available, I am confident the work of the drugs task forces will continue to make a positive impact on the lives of those affected by drug misuse. I met all drugs task forces towards the end of last year and funding for 2010 was among the issues discussed in all cases. I emphasised the need to prioritise projects with a view to ensuring the most effective use of resources and the most beneficial outcome for service users.

Needs and priorities change over time and consequently, drugs task forces and service providers must ensure that funding is realigned to match changing circumstances. The task forces are fully engaged in this process and I gave them the scope to redirect funding within their allocations to address the realigned priorities they identified for their areas of operation. I am satisfied that this approach has helped to minimise the impact from the reduction in funding in 2010.

The Government's welcome support for my proposals last year to develop a new national substance misuse strategy will combine a comprehensive response to alcohol issues with the provisions we have already agreed regarding illegal drugs, and this will further strengthen our policy response in dealing with these complex issues. Work towards the development of this new combined strategy, which is being led out by the drugs office in partnership with the Department of Health and Children, is well under way. The drugs strategy, which was launched in September 2009, has the strategic objective to continue to tackle the harm caused to individuals and society by the misuse of drugs through a concerted focus on the five pillars of supply reduction, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and research.

As part of our response, drug law enforcement is a vital feature of our policy framework. The objectives of the supply reduction pillar of the strategy are to reduce the volume of illicit drugs, to disrupt the activities of organised criminal networks and to target income from illicit drug trafficking. In examining our drug law enforcement response, I applaud the ongoing efforts and successes of the Garda Síochána and the Customs Service in continuing to prevent significant quantities of illegal drugs arriving in our communities. Both law enforcement agencies exceeded the drug supply reduction targets set for them under our previous national drugs strategy. Since then, they have consistently continued to seize substantial volumes of drugs. It is important to acknowledge that during public debates such as this. Their ongoing successes in this respect are a tribute to their professionalism and hard work and I acknowledge that this evening.

Given the lucrative business that drug trafficking entails, it is not surprising that trafficking and distribution is such an attractive prospect for organised crime around the world. Criminal networks organise themselves along business models. Established criminal networks involved in the drugs trade display the same organisational substructures as conventional businesses incorporating procurement, processing, marketing, distribution, finance and administration. Our law enforcement agencies must be able to tackle this head on and proactively pursue those involved in such activity through intelligence led approaches.

The Government will continue to place emphasis on this issue as a priority. In setting the policing priorities for the Garda Síochána in 2010, the Minister specifically asked the Garda Commissioner to continue the focus of the force on tackling serious crime, in particular targeting organised crime including its involvement in drug trafficking. This is also reflected in the Garda policing plan for this year, which was launched earlier today. It is vital that this Government direction is backed up by ensuring that the Garda Síochána has the necessary level of resources and support it needs to tackle drug trafficking effectively, and in ensuring that our legislative response remains effective in dealing with this issue.

In his contribution, the Minister amply demonstrated in detail the extensive action the Government has taken in backing up such commitments, including the record level of resources being provided to the Garda Síochána to tackle crime, the increase in Garda numbers to record levels, and the extensive suite of crime legislation introduced in recent years to tackle organised crime including drug trafficking.

With all of this in place, the Garda Síochána will continue to pursue vigorously all of those involved in drug crime. The Minister has already referred to the ongoing work carried out by the Garda national drugs unit, the divisional drug units, the organised crime unit and the national bureau of criminal investigation, all of whose work is backed up by the Criminal Assets Bureau. The national unit works in close co-operation with other agencies and jurisdictions on drug issues. Garda liaison officers based in London, The Hague, Madrid, Europol and Interpol provide specific assistance to the national unit on international aspects of operations which target drug traffickers.

Ireland is also a full member of the MAOC group based in Lisbon, which is an international intelligence led operation against drug trafficking at sea. As we saw with Operation Seabight, the centre has a significant role to play in assisting in the interception of narcotic shipments, especially cocaine, destined for the European Union and arriving from the Americas. Irish personnel are permanently based at the centre. Given the nature of drug trafficking, the Customs Service works very closely on an ongoing basis with the Garda Síochána in carrying out drug law enforcement. During his input to this debate tomorrow, the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, will outline the specific role of the Customs Service in our law enforcement efforts on drug trafficking.

On the development of the joint policing committee initiative and action needed to tackle the emergence of headshop outlets, joint policing committees have been established in the vast majority of our local authority areas. Through involvement of the Garda Síochána, the community and voluntary sectors, elected local authority members and Oireachtas Members, the issue of drugs and drug related intimidation will remain central to the work of these committees and I support and urge such a focus.

I have already voiced my grave concerns at the activities of headshop outlets on numerous occasions since my appointment as Minister of State, and the representation of substances as "legal highs". I am currently co-ordinating the Government response across various Departments to tackle the problems associated with the proliferation of these shops, which I know is a matter of serious concern to the public. In line with this, I have asked the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, who has responsibility for the designation and controlling of substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act, to ensure that every effort is made to expedite the response to this issue through the early control of substances under that legislation and I hope that steps can be taken to progress this as soon as possible.

I have also raised insurance and consumer protection issues with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, as well as planning issues with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. This issue shows the need for the integrated approach on which I am placing so much emphasis in the drugs arena. I reiterate that the Government remains resolutely committed to tackling the drugs issue and will continue to do so through a co-ordinated and partnership approach outlined in the national strategy. Accordingly, I commend the Government's amendment to the House.

See this speech in context