Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's response is disappointing. There is no sense of urgency at all from him in this regard. This is a major problem across the country but most prevalent in the Dublin city centre area. The Minister will get that feedback from all of the local drugs task forces as well. Prescription drugs, after alcohol, are the biggest problem that communities are dealing with.

One would have to ask why no action is being taken on this. This is at the same stage as it was at two years ago. The draft regulations were almost ready to go in January 2013. Here we are, almost two years later, and the issue does not seem to have moved on at all. Is there a problem with resources in the Department? Is the Minister allocating staff? Is Deputy Varadkar personally saying to his staff that he wants this to be a priority? It is a priority for everybody else working in this area. It is certainly a priority from the point of view of the gardaí. The law is too weak for them to tackle the problem in an effective way.

One must ask if there are vested interests coming into play here. Why is it that the Minister is not tackling the problem? It is in his hands to do something effective about this problem and yet it does not seem to be given any priority. There was a report in 2002 which was left to gather dust and my concern is that the same will happen with these draft regulations.

The solution is largely in the Minister's hands. I am appealing to him to take this issue seriously. It is devastating a lot of lives and is causing a lot of problems. It is in Deputy Varadkar's hands to make a meaningful difference to the problem and I ask him to act on it as soon as possible.

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