Feargal Quinn (Independent)

In recent times in Britain there has been a proposal for random drug testing of school children. The reason is that figures in Britain suggest that 40% of children between the ages of 14 and 18 years of age take illegal drugs. The question of whether or not it is a good thing to have random drug testing in schools is currently being debated very strongly and seriously in Britain. I suggest it is something we should debate in this House. We owe it to young people to be aware of the problems of drugs and to protect them from the abuse of drugs. Perhaps the way to do that is with random drug testing in schools. If it is, we should be debating it ahead of time.