Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister on her appointment and I have not interacted with her in this new Dáil as of yet. I know that she is relatively new to the role and I hope she will have a better impact than those who preceded her in dealing with the issue of drugs in Limerick city. It truly needs a cross-departmental response. Drugs, as the Minister is aware, crosses many Ministries, health and justice, to name just a few.

The drugs crisis in parts of my own city is worsening daily, it seems. It is an indictment of the priorities of previous governments that the funding for drugs and alcohol task forces was cut each year between 2008 and 2014. I am also a director of the Mid-West Regional Drugs and Alcohol Task Forum, which I have been a member of for a great number of years. Despite the escalation in the drugs crisis, funding for many groups has effectively been frozen since 2014. This lack of proper funding has severely affected the delivery of services for communities and we need to restore that funding to 2008 levels as soon as possible.

I wish to return to an issue in my own city of Limerick. In recent drug seizures in the city crack cocaine was among the drugs seized. Crack cocaine, as I am sure the Minister is aware, is a devastating drug. It has destroyed communities across the world. It is extremely addictive and is regarded as the most addictive form of cocaine. There really is a special place in hell for anyone who sells, distributes or benefits from the sale of crack cocaine. These dealers really are the scum of the earth. I attended the AGM yesterday, via Zoom, of the Mid-West Regional Drugs and Alcohol Task Forum. Among issues of concern raised, I was specifically asked to raise the issue of drug dealing in Limerick and the devastating effect it is having on some of our local communities. After that meeting I wrote yesterday to the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for the national drug strategy, Deputy Feighan, and in fairness his office responded quickly to that correspondence. I thank him for that and I will be following this matter up with him.

In particular, I mentioned to the Minister of State a Limerick estate which I do not wish to name publicly but which needs urgent intervention from the Minister of State with support from the Minister’s Department of Justice and Equality, the Garda Síochána, and additional resources from the Criminal Assets Bureau, Limerick County Council and other agencies.

I wish to focus my comments on that one estate in Limerick. This is an older, very settled housing estate with many wonderful working families living there for generations. Unfortunately, drug dealing operates in the estate on an almost 24-7 basis. Taxis often form queues while people from all over the region purchase their drugs. Many people simply walk into the estate. It is like a non-stop, 24-7 supermarket. The vast bulk of the people purchasing the drugs do not live in the area. This is ongoing 24-7. It is non-stop. Many elderly people who worked all their lives are living through this constant criminality.

While the Garda, in fairness to the force, has made a significant number of arrests and seizures, the local community feels utterly abandoned. Will the Minister prioritise the work of the courts to ensure that those recently charged are before the courts as soon as possible? It has been said to me on numerous occasions that the most vulnerable can be brought to court for often minor offences but the drug dealers, many of them facing serious charges, can swan around our city selling their filth while ruining lives and communities. I have spoken to senior gardaí about that. They are deeply concerned that they are charging people, bringing them to court, but because the courts are not sitting properly, they are out selling drugs on a 24-7 basis.

The local drugs gang regularly gives two fingers to everybody. The Defence Forces were redeployed recently to assist the Criminal Assets Bureau. The Defence Forces should be called on again, if necessary, to deal with this ongoing problem. The two fingers from these drugs gangs are not just to me, the local community, An Garda Síochána or Limerick council. They are two fingers to the Minister and definitely two fingers to the entire State. The Minister is the Minister for Justice and Equality and I am asking her to intervene personally. I am happy to speak with her in private, if she wishes, at a later time.

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