Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a specific issue around the security brief, namely, the issue of hard drugs, which are at the core of most organised crime in our country, and the personal and community devastation which they cause. While the statistics provided for Ireland are behind those for many other countries, the overall picture relating to drug use is clear and disturbing. Following Brexit, Ireland will have the highest rate of high-risk opiate use in Europe. More people are dying from overdoses than road accidents. What we did in terms of road accidents many years ago points to the type of response required. The Taoiseach will be aware that this is not only an issue in the large urban areas in that it has, for the first time, spread to many provincial communities and there is a growing fear for what the consequences are and will be.

There are many dimensions to this problem. The only way of getting to grips with it is to take a whole-of-government approach involving security, education, community development and health actions. Nobody believes that the current level of attention or urgency being given to this issue at national level is anywhere near what is required. The damage caused by the downgrading of community development and drugs policy since 2011 has been significant. The policy of devolving many actions to local authorities has not worked, by any measure. The fact that so many Ministers of State came together last week to highlight this point, particularly around the community development dimension, is an indication of this. There is no obvious commitment to coming down hard and early when drugs first appear in the community. The failure to deliver treatment and intervention services at the required level is undeniable.

Does the Taoiseach believe that current policies are adequate and are delivering and that the current highly devolved and hands-off approach is working, particularly in comparison to the previous approach, which had succeeded in many communities?

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