asked the Minister for Justice the number of drug offenders brought to court from 1st July, 1970, to 1st July, 1971; and what percentage rise this represents over the number brought to court from 1st July, 1969, to 1st July, 1970.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Drug Offences.
111.
The number of persons brought to court from 1st July, 1970, to 1st July, 1971, in respect of offences relating to drugs was 105. The percentage rise involved in this period compared to the period 1st July, 1969, to 1st July, 1970, was 98 per cent.
Is the Minister satisfied that there is adequate control over drugs in this country?
Well, there is a problem there and I suppose one cannot be satisfied in relation to any particular type of crime while it exists at all but I am satisfied that the Garda are dealing very adequately with the problem.
Has the Minister any intention of increasing the drug squad to curb the alarming amount of drugs flooding this country?
That is a separate question.
I think the Deputy may be under a misapprehension that it is only those members of the Garda Síochána who are in what is informally known as "the drug squad" who are concerned with the problem. That is not so at all. A lot of the prosecutions are as a result of investigations by other members of the force.
Surely the Minister must realise that what he is saying here is not at all in keeping with the facts? Last Saturday I was personally handed one-and-a-half times the lethal dose of drugs.
That is a separate matter.
I am asking the Minister to take remedial action.
I hope the Deputy went to the Garda with the evidence and gave the name and address of the person concerned, to identify him.
The person concerned showed a social conscience, which the Minister refuses to do, and gave me this lethal dose so that I might be able to impress on the Minister the need for immediate action.
Would the Minister not agree at this stage that the increase in drug abuse represents the greatest increase in crime in the country and would warrant immediate action of a sufficiently deterrent nature to curb this rapidly increasing epidemic of drug taking?
The Garda are very active indeed in this matter. The figures I gave the Deputy in reply to his question prove that fact and show the huge increase in convictions from one year to the next — 98 per cent.
If there were more gardaí involved and more people involved and trained in the detection of drug abuse, the number of persons brought to court would be far greater and we would have a chance of getting to grips with the problem which we cannot do with just a seven member drug squad.
The question the Deputy asked was what percentage rise there was in convictions. The figure I gave shows that from one year to the next it almost doubled.
Is the Minister not prepared to tackle the problem?