Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not even take five minutes.

I congratulate the Minister of State on the tremendous success in the referendum at the weekend. I saw his joy in the RDS. It was palpable and great to see. He did a great job, as did his party. He is to be congratulated on this. I stood with the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys, on Leeson Street Bridge canvassing. Fair play to him - he stopped the poor unfortunate pedestrians on a day the Luas had stopped.

The Minister of State has been given what I believe is the poisoned chalice of dealing with drugs strategy. Anyone who has been unfortunate enough to spend a night in an accident and emergency department - God knows I have spent enough of them there myself with the old ticker every now and then - will have seen the unfortunates affected by drugs. I do not believe there is a way to tackle the drugs problem other than to take it out of the hands of the warlords and drugs lords who are making massive money from it and killing one another to get control over it. The only way I ever see us solving this problem is by tackling it - by legalising it and, in some way, controlling it from there.

Over two years prior to my coming into the House, I had the privilege of visiting schools all over the country. Without a doubt, there are drug pushers sitting outside the gates of some second level schools waiting for the kids to come out. That is where we need to tackle them. Knowing the Minister’s background, I know he will take that on.