James Bannon (Fine Gael)

Some 83 people in Dublin died last year from drug overdoses. That is equivalent to one fifth of all deaths from road traffic accidents around the country. No matter how the Government tries to get around those statistics, they will not go away and will not be tackled by broken election promises. They cannot be ignored.

The following was promised in the 2002 programme for Government: "We will recruit an extra 2,000 gardaí and target them against street crime and drugs."