Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The issue of crime is challenging and difficult and unfortunately, there are many victims of crime every day. I note, however, the Government has introduced and passed legislation to enhance the rights of victims of crime.

Drug culture is a serious problem and not just in urban Ireland or in Dublin. Unfortunately, drugs are now freely available in every town and village. The people who are using drugs on a recreational basis need to look into their hearts and come to terms with what they are doing and what their actions are leading to. Every illegal drug that is taken in this country has been brought into this country illegally, 95% of the time by organised criminals and drug dealers who are feeding up the line to the violent gangs that do not exist in Dublin alone. We have seen much media coverage on this and I have great sympathy for my colleagues in Dublin who are dealing with the awful consequences of organised crime, which ultimately leads to many murders.

People who go out on a Saturday night and decide to take a line of cocaine need to realise that cocaine in this country is illegal and must be sourced through back channels in an illegal way. That is done, by and large, by organised crime gangs. Garda Commissioner Harris and the Minister, Deputy Flanagan - the two people in this country who lead the whole area of law and order, and justice - get this issue and have done a significant amount of work in highlighting the challenges, the difficulties and the problem that recreational drugs is causing.

I have engaged with a group in Blanchardstown who ran a campaign called Think Before you Buy. Councillor Ted Leddy introduced me to the group about three years ago in my capacity as Government spokesperson on justice in this House. I spoke at the group's conference, where I deputised for the former Minister, Frances Fitzgerald, three years ago. I have worked closely with the group since. Its campaign is very simple. Professional people in middle Ireland who are unfortunately dabbling in recreational drugs are doing this probably without giving any thought whatsoever to the consequences. The Think Before you Buy campaign is as it says, namely, to think before one makes a purchase. I have spoken on a number of occasions to Commissioner Harris on this particular issue and the Think Before you Buy group behind the campaign, which is Blanchardstown drugs and alcohol task force, together with Councillor Leddy, were with me at Garda headquarters four to five weeks ago where we met the Garda Commissioner. What was supposed to be a 30-minute meeting ended up being nearly two and a half hours. The Commissioner was very taken with what the group was proposing and how it was proposing to do it. The engagement with the Commissioner was heartfelt and something very positive will come from it. The Commissioner committed that day that the project would go on to the national drugs task force agenda at its next meeting. He also committed that day to using to using An Garda Síochána social media to alert people in middle Ireland, who are educated and have had the same opportunities as all of the Senators and I have had but who unfortunately are taking drugs. The campaign asks people to listen and realise the damage that they are doing, not just to their own health and communities, but the fact that they are contributing to murders in Dublin, Limerick, Cork and everyone else where people are losing their lives as a result of falling out or coming on the wrong side of serious criminals who are making millions of euros from drugs.

The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, was in this House couple of years ago - probably not even that - when we changed the law on the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, where small-time drug dealers in towns like Ennis, Ennistymon, Clonmel and other places are making money, driving flash cars, and living a lifestyle that is completely beyond their means, are now to be targeted by CAB. It is interesting to note that the figures that CAB have achieved in 2018 is its highest figure since it came into existence. That is because we changed the legislation. Small-time drug dealers are causing raic just as big-time drug dealers are, and are feeding into big-time drug dealers and are destroying the lives of so many decent, honest, hard-working, genuine families. A young person just gets caught up in recreational drugs and some, unfortunately, end up taking heroin and destroying their lives. These are good people, with hearts, intelligence and so much to offer this society, but unfortunately they just go down the wrong line.

People like Senators Ó Ríordáin and Warfield, my colleague, Senator Noone, and I and the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, are all on the one page. We may differ on how we are going about it but everyone agrees in trying to get some sort of a handle on this.

This is not just an urban problem. It was such a problem up to about a decade ago. Now, it is in many areas. I live in a tourist area. Due to the population of Lahinch, where I am from, ballooning from 600 to 15,000 people during the summer, the whole issue of drug-taking has become prevalent. Along the entire coast of County Clare, in places like Doolin, Kilkee and other areas, drugs, unfortunately, are freely available. I do not know how any Government can deal with it. All we can do is our best to put the infrastructure in place but most importantly, we need to organise advertising campaigns. It has worked with smoking where we have spent millions on such campaigns to alert people to the dangers of smoking. In the past six years, the percentage of our population that is smoking has reduced from 23% to 17%.I wish I could say that the percentage of our population taking drugs on a recreational basis was 17%, but that is not the case. It is far higher. It is an awful lot higher. We need to spend tens of millions of euro. We have to engage with kids at primary and early secondary school level to try to educate them and bring them with us.

I will conclude on that note. I totally support what all colleagues are doing in this regard. We must all work together. There has to be a unanimous political approach. We all need to work together in this regard. This problem is destroying our communities and the lives of many young people.