Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also congratulate the new Minister of State. This is his second day in the job but he has already taken business in the House three times. He has hit the ground running.

I support many of the ideas outlined in the motion but I am concerned and shocked that a message would go out from the Dáil that there are Members who wish to discuss the decriminalisation of illegal drugs. I am concerned that people for whom I have huge regard, including Deputies Maureen O'Sullivan, Finian McGrath, Mattie McGrath, Shane Ross, Stephen Donnelly, John Halligan and Seamus Healy, would subscribe to a message that would be sent out from Dáil Éireann telling the people that we wish to discuss the decriminalisation of drugs. It is a bad message to open the debate on the decriminalisation of illegal drugs and safe consumption. We must think about the message we are sending out. The Criminal Justice Act 1994 is clear. It carries a sentence of up to seven years if a person uses such substances and, more importantly, drug trafficking carries an even heavier sentence, up to life imprisonment, and rightly so.

I recognise the scale of the problem, as referred to in the Government amendment, including polydrug use and the strong association between drug and alcohol abuse and self-harm and suicide. I support the drugs strategy involving community and voluntary groups to provide a more co-ordinated response to individuals, families and the community. The reality is that society is being devastated and steered in a particular way by drug lords and international gangs, as well as local thugs, for profit on the backs of young, vulnerable people and communities at risk. If we look at the root cause of addiction to illegal drugs, the State faces a greater threat from drug lords, locally and internationally, than from terrorists. In 2012, there have been significant seizures of illegal drugs, including cocaine, heroin and ecstasy, with a street value of millions of euro. These have been confiscated by the Garda to prevent Ireland becoming a gateway to Europe, including a seizure valued at €800,000 which the Garda is satisfied was destined for the Irish market. What do the Garda, communities and those working in a voluntary capacity think about the message we are sending out by wishing to discuss the decriminalisation of illegal drugs and their safe consumption?

We in this House from all parties and across the political divide must unite and send the clearest possible message that there will be no legalising in any of our communities of illegal drugs as proscribed by the Minister for Justice and Law Reform. The devastation they have caused in families and to personal health, in many cases leading to murder, has had a generational effect in many parts of the country. There was a time when the use of illegal drugs was restricted to particular areas, mostly in Dublin. Now, however, this problem is being experienced in every parish, village, town and city in Ireland.

I would like to spend more time on this but I will conclude by saying I spent the past 35 years of my life working in the voluntary sector with youth groups, sporting organisations and youth clubs. What message are we sending to the soccer, Gaelic and boxing clubs, youth groups, and those who mark pitches and put up nets, raise funds and even hold cake sales to help provide services and facilities for young people? We need to send out a clear message that Dáil Éireann is resolved not to legalise illegal drugs. That message must go out tonight and that is why I am calling, even at this late stage, with an hour left in this debate, for all Members to consider the message that will go out from that one element of this Private Members' motion.

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