Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, to the House. I take this Bill on behalf of my colleague, Senator Thomas Byrne, who is on parliamentary duties elsewhere and cannot be here. Fianna Fáil will support the Bill which stems from a Court of Appeal judgment of 10 March 2015 that section 2(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977, under which the Government was empowered to declare substances to be controlled for the purposes of the Act, was unconstitutional. The purpose of the Bill is to add the substances previously controlled under Government order to the Schedule to the Act, thereby providing that they will once more be controlled. As a result of the judgment, all substances controlled by means of Government orders under section 2(2) cease to be controlled with immediate effect and their possession ceased to be an offence. These substances included ecstasy, benzodiazepines, magic mushrooms and new psychoactive substances or so-called "head shop drugs". The judgment has no implications for approximately 125 other substances including cannabis, heroin and cocaine, which is very welcome. They are listed in the Schedule to the Act.

We welcome very much this legislation. I outlined on the Order of Business yesterday the fact that we welcomed the speed with which the Government has addressed this issue. We support this legislation fully. As some colleagues will be aware, Senators on both sides of the House in a previous Seanad worked tirelessly on a weekly basis to get the Government of the day to act on the so-called "head shops".Such shops sprang up from a small number in 2008 to more than 100 by 2011 in every major town and village in Ireland and visited destruction upon many families therein.

As a youth worker at the time, I witnessed at first hand the effects these so-called legal highs had on young people. I welcomed the actions of the Government of the day, when the Ministers responsible, namely, Mary Harney and Dermot Ahern, added these substances to the list of those banned under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977. As a result of the court decision yesterday, Members find themselves legislating to tighten or copperfasten that legislation. I realise the difficulty the Minister faces in this regard. As these are designer drugs, the manufacturers can tweak one component, thereby making it a different drug. Consequently, it is extremely difficult to legislate for each one of these so-called designer drugs. However, I welcome the initiative the Minister is taking today and hopefully it will copperfasten the illegality of these drugs.

Although today is not the day on which to have it, as Members seek to have this legislation passed through this House as quickly as possible, a major discussion on the entire issue of drugs is needed. Discussion is needed on the national drugs strategy, on the supports available to those who find themselves addicted to drugs and on the resources being made available to the Garda Síochána to carry out detection and prosecution of people who are breaking the law. I would like to have the primary focus of the latter on the Mr. Bigs, not the Mr. Smalls. The regional drugs units have been disbanded in a number of areas, including my native county of Cavan and the neighbouring county of Monaghan. In other counties, they have been depleted and amalgamated into the normal crime units and this is not acceptable. This is a major crisis for the country and while I greatly welcome the initiatives of the Minister, Deputy Reilly, in respect of the tobacco industry and of the Minister himself regarding alcohol and its abuse, unfortunately this area has been ignored. A focus must be put upon it and if this decision yesterday of the Court of Appeal does anything, hopefully it will reinvigorate Members' efforts to focus on the horrific consequences for those who unfortunately are addicted to drugs. I wish to reiterate a point mentioned by my colleague, the Minister, or rather Deputy Kelleher. That was a Freudian slip or perhaps it is 12 months' premature-----