Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

I congratulate the Minister of State and the various Garda units involved. I welcome the recent development in relation to Lisbon. I was involved with the officials working on that when I was Chairman of the Joint Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs for the past five years. I welcome the recent statement by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform that the operation of the Criminal Assets Bureau is to be expanded to cover smaller dealers in illicit drugs and those who are involved in similar activities. Such people will now be targeted to the same extent as the bigger guys because the manner in which they flaunt their money is just as much of a problem. Senator Norris, who is not present in the Chamber, advocated the legalisation of drugs. If the Senator examines the four reports — covering issues like cocaine, cannabis and the inclusion of alcohol in the national substance misuse strategy — which were produced over the past five years by the joint committee of which I was Chairman, he will find there is no such thing as a "soft drug".