Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)

The Irish Times is a very reputable newspaper, not a work of fiction.

I accept the Minister is doing his best to ensure the extra gardaí will be delivered. In the meantime, in the area where I grew up and in other towns, villages and cities, the numbers of young people experimenting with drugs is growing at an alarming rate. While I do not believe 2,000 extra gardaí will solve the problem, they will go a long way towards doing so. The national drugs strategy appears to be failing. Drugs task forces will only succeed if they get the proper resources, including gardaí and so on; some areas do not even have such forces. If the gardaí want to carry out a drugs bust in Roscommon, they must request special assistance. There are no dog units and so on, which is like putting up the white flag to professional crime gangs. If we do not get 2,000 extra gardaí soon, we will need 10,000 extra gardaí to cope with the serious problems that will exist. Unfortunately, the Government has not taken precautions to deal with this issue.

Garda recruits and trainee gardaí are not qualified gardaí. I am sceptical that the pre-election promise of an increase in Garda strength from 12,000 to 14,000 can be delivered during the lifetime of the Government. Drugs are taking root in the towns and villages which have not had a drugs problem in the past.