Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is my first opportunity to wish the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, well. She has a tough task ahead of her. I do not need to tell anyone present or anyone listening that problem drug use continues to be one of the most significant challenges facing our country. It has been thus for a long time. Unfortunately, it has not got any better. Problem drug use undermines the potential of the person involved, devastating the lives of families and causing huge problems for local communities, villages, towns and cities. The delay in this legislation was only adding to the growing crisis not only in our inner city areas but throughout the Twenty-six Counties.

Some people who try drugs are thrill-seekers and some are just curious. Some try drugs because their friends use them or because they want to be perceived as cool. Even more likely to abuse drugs and at risk of falling into addiction are people who are suffering emotionally and who use a drug to cope with the day-to-day difficulties of life.

I recently spent an evening with Mr. Aubrey McCarthy of Tiglin in inner-city Dublin where a group of volunteers from the organisation, many of whom are former addicts, go out every night to support drug addicts, particularly those who are homeless owing to drug addiction, and help them to go to addiction centres to try to restart their lives. Tiglin, Cuan Mhuire in Athy and Coolmine do absolutely excellent work in this area and need to be commended.

It is not all about the hard drugs, however; it is also about the soft drugs. There are so many people who try to self-medicate out of loneliness, low self-esteem, unhappy relationships, stress and many other types of problems. Some drug misusers suffer from a mental illness such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. We all know drug use does not solve any of these problems and can easily make them worse or create new ones. What the short-term escape drugs provide can be so attractive that the dangerous consequences of misuse can seem unimportant. Communities under pressure are giving very strong signals that they are under siege from these so-called Z drugs and tablets.

Every day in the media, we hear about the devastating effects drug abuse and misuse have on our communities. It is not just a problem for the big urban communities. The epidemic of drug addiction is far reaching and is hitting hard some rural communities in my county, County Kildare. Many voluntary organisations are working to stem the tide but the failure to give sufficient resources to gardaí in Kildare continues to hamper any effort to clamp down on illegal drug use and supply. The absence of any community gardaí probably facilitates the use of drugs among young people. Some of the suppliers are as young as 15, which is absolutely shocking.

Fianna Fáil wants to give the Garda the powers needed to arrest people who are selling prescription drugs on our streets. Support for this Bill is part of the multifaceted approach we have called for to tackle gangland crime. However, this must go hand in hand with having sufficient numbers of gardaí on the streets to make arrests. I have shared with this House on a number of occasions the shocking ratio of gardaí to members of the civilian population in County Kildare. It is the lowest in the country. While I always welcome revised and improved legislation to combat drug abuse, the supply of drugs on the street and its relation to gangland crime, I believe it will be but a paper exercise if it cannot be implemented due to a shortage of manpower.

We simply must give the Garda the power it requires to arrest those who are distributing tablets and Z drugs right across the country. These powers do not exist and, incredibly, the Garda is not in a position to move effectively on this phenomenon, which is a huge source of revenue to the drug lords and which is damaging young people, their families and communities.

It is important to point out to the House and the Minister of State that there has been a substantial cut to the number of gardaí working to prevent and investigate drug crime. The figures released last year show the number of gardaí assigned to divisions of Garda drug units has been slashed from 359 officers in 2011 to 257 in 2015, representing a cut of 28%. Of course, there is a close link between illegal drug use and the incidence of serious crime. Addictive behaviour is very complex. We cannot legislate for it but we can absolutely legislate for the abuse, and it is not a day too soon.

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