Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am also delighted to be able to speak on this motion and I complement Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan from the bottom of my heart, particularly for the hard work she has done in bringing forward this motion and her ongoing work in living out the legacy she inherited from the late Tony Gregory and attacking this scourge of our nation. Much has been said and I am very annoyed that some members of Fine Gael, particularly Deputy Keating, should try to be mischievous or undermine this motion. Every politician in this and the other House knows that this is a real problem and it is not something to be joked about or to have it said that we are soft on it. We are not soft on drugs. It is a very serious motion asking us to deal with this scourge and plague in our land.

Many figures have been thrown about, but we all know the issues. Anybody living or working in a community - employers, parents and guardians - knows the issues with the drink and drug culture. I also like a drink as much as anyone and I know the problems created by it. It is costing our economy and country, in addition to the damage done to the mental and physical well-being of all those who abuse alcohol. Deputy Wallace has spoken about how when he trains soccer teams, he knows when people have been out drinking. I have seen it in teams. Unfortunately, the culture persists that it is great to go out and celebrate this, that and the other. It is wonderful to have a celebration and to use alcohol properly.

We must grasp the nettle of the drug culture. We see the slaughter on our streets where parents are being gunned down in front of their children coming home from school. This is shocking. The Troubles in Northern Ireland were not as bad as this. These gangs, some of which have come from Northern Ireland and are obviously subversive organisations, are causing mayhem but we have not tackled this. We have tackled alcohol and dangerous driving on our roads. In my constituency, we have around 40 gardaí in the Garda Traffic Corps and rightly so but only a meagre seven or eight in the whole country in the drugs division. We need a seismic change. More people are dying of alcohol or drug-related causes than are dying on the roads. Any death on the roads is one too many but we need to change emphasis completely and see the damage that is being done because we have been too slow in reacting. We have a Road Safety Authority but we now need to set up a human safety authority to deal with this problem.

I pay tribute to the Aislinn Adolescent Addiction Centre, which I was involved in setting up in Kilkenny, Sister Consilio and many other groups, including a new project of which I am a board member which we are trying to set up in Carrick-on-Suir. The need is great. Younger and younger people are being affected. One should hear the harrowing tales of people who enter the Aislinn Adolescent Addiction Centre. They are getting worse by the year and by the month and we have our heads in the sand. I sat on the other side of the House for four years. Why does every motion from this side of the House have to be countermanded by an amendment? Why can we not get together when we have a problem as serious as this, one that strikes at the very heart of our society and affects our economy to an enormous degree?

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