Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and acknowledge the personal interest he has taken in this area. He knows what is happening on the ground and is an advocate of action to prevent drug abuse.

It would be remiss of us not to refer to what occurred in Dublin last Saturday. On today's Order of Business there were many comments on what might be the underlying causes of last Saturday's catastrophe. Emphasis was placed on the responsibility of the Garda Síochána, including Garda supervisors, as well as the strategy beforehand and what sort of pre-planning was carried out. Senators also referred to underlying causes, including the motivation of those involved.

I wish to focus on a certain element, which comprised young people on drugs. Anecdotal evidence is available that some, if not many, of these young people were on drugs at the time. That leaves us with a serious dilemma in terms of how we move forward with this debate. The Minister of State's Department is tied into it because we cannot deal with drug abuse sporadically. We must consider all aspects of the problem.

In his initial remarks, the Minister of State said that much of the Government's work goes unseen and unnoticed by the public. I respect that work. Unfortunately, however, the public has noticed that some work is not going on. Last Saturday, people could see that young people had taken drugs, although I know there was a lot of alcohol involved also. There were other underlying motivating factors as well but drug abuse was evident.

We find ourselves in a serious crisis, witnessing for the first time a two-tier society. The Minister of State and Senator Brady will know that if there were people on drugs last Saturday it is not a one-off situation because it is happening every day of the week. Members of the Garda Síochána have to put up with this type of behaviour daily in certain areas of Dublin because young and not so young people are off their heads on drugs. Television coverage has brought the problem into the public domain due to the magnitude of what occurred last Saturday.

The Minister of State, my fellow Senators and the Garda Síochána know that situation is not new. Members of the Garda Síochána are at the coal face in dealing with this ongoing problem every day and that is why we find ourselves in a major dilemma. The Minister of State is making a genuine and credible attempt to fight the war on drugs but gardaí are on the frontline and are not winning that daily battle. Gardaí to whom I have spoken say they do not have the answers because it is as if this problem is insoluble. The difficulty will not go away unless we come up with answers to deal with drug abuse in cities and towns.

As regards the deficit in community policing, there are many proactive local authorities and politicians who want to tackle crime. Local authority members want to work hand in glove with gardaí and others involved in trying to sort out crime. New legislation has been introduced by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform but local council representatives must become involved in the mechanisms for dealing with crime.

Three weeks ago, Donegal County Council passed a motion, tabled by my colleague Councillor Bernie McGuinness, inviting the local Garda chief superintendent to attend the council chamber. The aim is to see how the council and the Garda Síochána can work more closely, proactively and productively to deal with drug abuse.

Community policing is not happening but there must be better communication between local communities and the Garda Síochána. Communities are frustrated because gardaí may be landing en bloc or may lack inside knowledge. A proper mechanism should be established to link members of the Garda Síochána and those working locally against drug abuse. Currently, however, communities have little confidence in the procedures being used to combat this serious illness.

As regards rehabilitation and reintegration, more emphasis must be placed on pilot projects in satellite towns outside Dublin. There are three successful pilot projects in Dublin but such projects are required elsewhere. The Minister of State acknowledged that such issues also arise in rural towns the length and breadth of the country. We must examine the possibility of providing more funding for these projects.

The Minister of State said that the United States has not solved the drugs problem. That is accurate. The Minister of State also referred to the Netherlands, which uses the softly-softly approach and still has not come up with all the answers. However, the reality on the ground for Ireland as an island is very much about policing the harbours. That is not an easy task, and is a very frustrating one for many people involved when they see resources for harbour patrols and so on being taken back. Today, there are more drugs than fish coming through our harbours. That is a sad reality for an island community when we have invested millions of euro into our harbour development and fishing fleet. Thirty or 40 years ago, if one said there were more drugs than fish coming through our harbours, people would have laughed, but that is the reality. More and more restrictive measures and procedures have been applied to fishermen out trying to earn a living for their families while we apply no measures or restrictions on drug importation at our harbours, the drug ports of entry.

We must find where the drugs originate. I know marine affairs are not in the portfolio of the Minister of State. It is a matter with which many Ministers find it difficult to deal, and they do not stay long in the area, but Ministers with responsibility for marine affairs are putting more pressures and restrictions on the fishing industry than we are on the drug industry.

Last Saturday saw the emergence of a new generation of drug users. A few university graduates of the 1970s recently got in touch with me to say they had done extensive research on the drugs problem in inner city Dublin in the 1970s. The fear now is that we are looking at a second generation of drug users. Even though the evidence is only anecdotal, we should consider the social problems of inner city Dublin with regard to these new sons and daughters. Are we to continue considering new solutions? We must still look at preventative measures for the third generation. We must look at rolling out social and youth work programmes, youth facilities, community facilities and youth workers in every town and village in the country. We owe it to this third generation of sons and daughters in our cities and countryside.

I approve of the Minister of State saying that at-risk young people must be considered and coming up with a definition, but there is no definition for an "at-risk young person" because every young person born in this country is at risk. We owe it to them and to their parents to ensure proper procedures and facilities are in place to prevent them engaging in anti-social behaviour, such as we saw last Saturday, or becoming caught up in drugs. That is a debate for another day.

The Departments are not working together on a proper strategy. The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs is going one way, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is going another and the Department of Social and Family Affairs in yet another. The direction is not sufficiently clear.