Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Further to the comments by a range of Deputies during questions on the Order of Business, it is clear that the Government has failed to address the causes of crime. When one looks at the areas of crime and drug abuse not just in Dublin's inner city but across the country, there is a familiar pattern of economic and social disadvantage in the areas that are suffering the greatest problems. There is a feeling of abandonment, starting with the absence of quality public services, such as childcare, genuinely free education and healthcare, combined with a lack of future employment opportunities which often fuels a young person's pathway to involvement with drugs and criminality. There are role models who indicate that is a lucrative, if very destructive, future for them.

The Government constantly talks about full employment and the unemployment rate is less than 5%. However, Dublin city has seven unemployment black spots where up to 32% of people are without a job. What will the Government do differently to break this cycle of disadvantage and unemployment so that we can eradicate these black spots and take away these role models of a destructive future from young people who see very little else available to them?

Will the Taoiseach listen to the very open-hearted appeal from the nine former Ministers with responsibility for drugs policy, to go back to the drugs partnership model and reinvest in it now that the resources are available again because it was a model that worked?

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