Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understood from the Minister's response to the earlier engagement that the situation now is that adding substances to the banned list requires legislation until such time as the Minister prepares new legislation to restore the opportunity for the Minister of the day to issue a statutory instrument proscribing any new substance. I have sympathy with the case made by Deputy Pringle but my real concern is the Minister's response that this is not a course that he would like to take. The Minister talks of some months. The new legislation will take considerable time to prepare and there will be particular scrutiny by the Attorney General given all that has happened in relation to the legislation already in place due to this morning's judgment. As Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan stated, new substances are coming on stream almost weekly, particularly in the area of so-called "legal highs"; I raised that issue directly with the Minister earlier today as I have done in a number of fora in recent months. These come under a variety of different names and are being reinvented to suit the purpose of their producers and promoters. It is not good enough that the rest of this year could go by and we will not respond. My hope is that we would respond with all of the speed required and that we would, as I stated earlier, endeavour to be one step ahead of these purveyors of death.

I appeal to the Minister not to think in terms of us parking this issue. We must not park it. We need to be proactive and be prepared to go through the mechanics of legislation, if that is what is required in the interim period. I have no objection to having legislation presented here every other week, if necessary, if that helps in the battle against these, as should be properly designated, "illegal drugs".

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