Michael McCarthy (Labour)

It would call into question the roles of IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland in promoting industry.

I agree with Senator Fitzgerald in respect of the growing problem of the cocaine epidemic. It is becoming socially acceptable to admit to snorting cocaine, but it ruins communities. Its most recent victim passed away at 12.30 p.m. yesterday in Waterford Regional Hospital. One can only imagine the torment and agony suffered by members of the Doyle family when they switched off his life support machine. A young man in the spring of his years who had beaten cancer has been lost to that drug.

We must bear in mind that when it is being snorted in Ballsbridge, etc., one is fuelling drug lords, the scum of society who murder people to gain money and who do not care about the consequences. In the 1980s, politics was set aside to deal with subversives. Politics now needs to be set aside to deal with this problem. A cross-party and integrated approach is needed to deal with this growing epidemic in society. We must confront the drug barons and remove some of the agony from those families grieving loved ones today.