Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The beauty of being on that side of the House is that one has an army of officials to help one to draft legislation, unlike those of us on this side of the House. We put forward amendments in good faith in the hope that we were improving the legislation.

I seek some clarification from the Minister because my understanding is that when this Bill was originally brought before the last Dáil, when I was not in my current role and the Minister was not in his, a more comprehensive list of illegal drugs was included. If that is the case, why are we now curtailing the list of drugs for which a person can be tested at the side of the road?

My amendment states that the Minister will, "upon commencement of this Act, in conjunction with the Garda Commissioner, make regulations specifying the minimum Levels (units in whole blood) in respect of each drug specified at reference number 6 in column 1 of the Schedule." Does that not give the Minister an opportunity to accept the amendment and to work on it at a later stage, in conjunction with the Garda Commissioner and bring forward a statutory instrument outlining and specifying the drugs? The Minister is correct that the types of drugs people are taking are continuously evolving and what we are doing in this legislation is far too restrictive in that context.

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