Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We want to talk about the task force. It might surprise some of the Minister of State's Cabinet colleagues but it should not surprise him that, in parts of my constituency, there is open drug dealing. There is an increase in the number of drug deaths and the rate of intimidation. Families are being intimidated in the area. There are children acting as drug runners and they are destroying the hope and potential of a whole generation. There are people fleeing their homes and becoming homeless because of intimidation. It probably would not surprise the Minister of State that I am aware of eight-year-olds presenting at services with an addiction problem. I am not referring to an alcohol addiction but to an addiction to cocaine or another such substance. That is the background.

If the Minister of State went to my constituency, he would see that there are posters up referring to Crimestoppers. The organisation encourages people to telephone in if they see drug dealing in the area. The campaign has been successful. The Garda is saying it has already had some successes with it but the difficulty is that, with the posters going up, people's expectations rise. The Garda tells me it does not have the resources to follow up on many of the reports of open drug dealing.

There is currently no superintendent. There are two uniformed inspectors and one plain-clothes inspector. There used to be five. We are short of nine sergeants. We have a reduced drug squad and a reduced number of gardaí in the area. Robbed cars can be seen in the constituency again. We believed this was a thing of the past.

With regard to the drugs task force, who is sitting at the table?

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