Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Amendments Nos. 1, 3, 7 and 8 propose the setting up of a new authority, the non-medicinal psychoactive substances regulatory authority. I am loath to set up new authorities, mindful of the criticism that they are just quangos that very often end up looking after themselves rather than specific interests. In this case, I do not want to add a major cost to the State which is why I propose it would comprise people working in other related public sector bodies.

Amendments Nos. 2, 4 and 9 propose that the roles and functions of the authority should be to identify the substances that it considers to be psychoactive substances for the purposes of the Act, to establish, update and maintain a register of the substances it identifies as being psychoactive substances for the purposes of the Act, and to provide guidance and support to An Garda Síochána and to Customs and Excise. These functions could be added to the remit of an existing committee within the Department, the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, part of whose role is to advise. The reason I suggest this is that the committee has been quite effective, although we have sometimes been critical of the Government's role in combating the illegal drugs market. The people on the advisory committee have built up an expertise in illegal drugs, which is important in dealing with the issue of head shops. So far, the Department of Health and Children has been slow to react because of the way in which the Misuse of Drugs Acts work and because we must always refer issues upwards to Europe. We must obtain permission from Europe to protect public health, which is ludicrous and should be changed. If the Minister is talking to the Minister for Health and Children or other European Justice Ministers, he should advocate the enabling of faster reactions so that we in Ireland are not prevented from reacting to public health issues.

In addition, there should be some sort of reaction from the EU as a whole. I am a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Scrutiny. Every fortnight when we have our committee meeting we are given a list of products that have been banned or un-banned under anti-dumping legislation. It seems that China, in particular, is dumping many of these products on the European Union, and I find it strange that steps have not been taken to protect the European Union by the implementation of anti-dumping measures against such companies, as has been done for Chinese steel and a range of other products.

If the Minister is not happy to set up a regulatory authority to deal with this issue without any major cost to the State - and he does not seem to be - would he be willing to consider giving the role of identifying substances to the National Advisory Committee on Drugs? This would not deal with all of my concerns as it would not have all the powers I suggested the regulatory authority should have, but it would help any prosecution under the Minister's legislation.

It looks as though we will support this Bill. Members of the Garda Síochána require some type of expertise when they go to serve prohibition notices and orders. They need to know they can rely on a source of expertise when they go to court at an early stage for a prohibition order and, later, a closure order. This expertise must be able to stand the test of a court hearing.

Even though the burden of proof is lower under this Bill because it is an aspect of civil rather than criminal law, such expert backup should be available through the National Advisory Committee on Drugs. The Garda must also be able to rely on the Forensic Science Laboratory or, if necessary, a private facility, although I am loath to agree to this. If the forensic laboratory was properly resourced it would be able to deal with such things. That is why I encourage the Minister to consider this again. The problem is that we do not really have time to ask the Minister to consider this again because we have, at this stage, only 35 minutes left to discuss the Bill. However, I ask him to consider in particular amendments Nos. 2, 4 and 9.

I have tabled all these amendments with the aim of being helpful because, ultimately, everyone in the House has the same intention - to get rid of the scourge which is affecting many young people and also older people who should have more sense. These people are clogging up accident and emergency units around the country, and the products being sold here have resulted in the deaths of a number of people, as has been attested to by a coroner recently in one particular case.

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