Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I second this important motion. Drug abuse is probably the greatest scourge the country is facing and it is threatening the lives of many of our young people. Either the authorities are not tackling the drug abuse problem adequately or they do not have the resources. One of my colleagues in the Dáil, Deputy Tom Hayes, tabled a question to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform recently asking him about the number of drugs seizures in County Tipperary since January 2000 until October 2003. The Minister replied that he had been informed by the Garda authorities that there have been 958 drug seizures in County Tipperary since 1 January 2000 to date and that the number of prosecutions that followed was 504. That is just in one county. I do not have the figures for Dublin with me. I dread to think what they are but I intend to secure those figures.

A United Nations survey on drugs and crime published recently found that more young people in Ireland abuse amphetamines and ecstasy than any other country in Europe. That is a terrible statistic to have to read about our young people. What are we doing to tackle this problem? I want to give the Minister of State a few reminders of what his party said it would do to tackle it.