Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State will get general support for this legislation. We all know about the engagement of children in criminal activity. We can call it what we will, whether grooming or whatever else. We know this particular issue exists concerning drug crime in particular and that we have many streetwise criminals at this stage who are only too willing to circumvent the law and to use and abuse people. At this stage, we are talking about kids, even before they are teenagers, operating as runners, lookouts and whatever else. People have moved on from using bikes to using e-scooters for delivering drugs as part of drug-dealing enterprises.

Drug crime and drug problems are everywhere. Not a place in Ireland is untouched by cocaine addiction. We hope the Citizens' Assembly on Drug Use can look at a more novel approach than what we have had to date because we are not getting on top of this problem. We will have to ensure we have the policing infrastructure to deal with it and we must penalise anyone grooming or using kids.

In certain deprived areas, funding and resources have been lacking and we have not made the necessary family and community interventions. That work needs to be done. The Greentown project is being operated in some places. We must also do whatever we can in respect of youth diversion projects. We would nearly need to put them on steroids to get to where we need to be in this regard.

If we are talking about drug debt intimidation, we will be talking about some of the characters involved. In recent days and weeks, I have been dealing with many people. People have gone to carry out threats have themselves probably been under pressure. They have run up debts and found themselves, through making bad choices I might add, under pressure and at the wrong end of things with these drug gangs.

It is a perfect business model for the main drug dealer. He does not have to worry about anything. He can send out somebody to do things. From his perspective, he can send out an idiot and the person concerned is under pressure. People in this situation, in some cases, are then willing to be used and allow pressure to be put on somebody's mother or grandmother. Those are despicable scenarios. The initiatives in this legislation are part of what we need to put in play in addressing this problem, but if we are going to be real in respect of the entirety of the problem we have organised crime, drug crime and whatever on the streets of our towns and villages, and all the rest of it, we need to be far more novel. I support this legislation, but-----

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