Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I do not know and since I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, I will not pronounce on it. However, it may be that the phrase I mentioned at the end of my reply referred to secondary legislation. I am not sure. Certainly magic mushrooms were banned not through primary legislation but by a ministerial order. However, the process to achieve this took some time to complete. It was not just a case of drawing up an order and implementing it. It was dependent on whether the substance was mentioned in the Schedule to the relevant Act and a lengthy procedure had to be followed before it could be done.