Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

Two private schools in the Dublin area issued statements recently to the effect that, with the consent of the parents, they will engage in drug testing where there is a suspicion that students have been involved in drug taking. Will the Leader ask the Minister for Education and Science to indicate if this practice is to be extended to all schools? This may well happen due to public pressure and, if so, the Minister should indicate if the Department has the personnel and resources in terms of counsellors and so on to adequately monitor such practices. Many second level schools do not have access to in-school counselling services and are obliged to share them.

If the practice of testing for drug taking was to be implemented throughout schools, either on a mandatory or random basis, it would have serious consequences for the second level system. In view of this it is important that the Minister should indicate, either in the House or elsewhere, his views and that of his Department on this issue. It is important that there should be no repetition of what recently happened in Bray.