Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

All those in this House who respect human rights will be appalled at the execution of seven foreigners in Indonesia this morning. The Indonesian President said the state was merely applying the rule of law against narcotics traffickers. An Irish priest, whom I heard interviewed this morning on “Morning Ireland”, said he spent some time yesterday with the people who were executed and that one had a mental illness. It is appalling that, while we would all support a war on drugs, people’s lives would be taken rather than commit them to long terms of imprisonment for their crimes.

I am not soft on drugs and that is why I repeat my call to the Leader this morning for a debate as a matter of urgency with the Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, who was recently given responsibility for this area, to see how we can start our war on drugs. I will not be advocating executing anybody but we need to review our sentences for serious drug trafficking crimes, which destroy the lives of so many young people throughout the country and decimate communities. We need to examine the resources available to the gardaí for the detection of drug trafficking and sale. I would also like to discuss how we can make further resources available for the rehabilitation of those unfortunate people whose lives are destroyed by the use of drugs and make more resources available so that many of those people can in the future make a meaningful contribution to our society. I strongly condemn what happened this morning in Indonesia.