asked the Minister for Justice the amount, in cash terms on the retail market, of drugs seized by the Drug Squad in each of the past three years.
2.
Ceisteanna — Questions Oral Answers - Drug Problem.
1.
asked the Minister for Justice the number of convictions for illicit drug-taking and illicit drug possession in each of the past three calendar years for which figures are available.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions 1 and 2 together.
Many of the drugs in question are not sold commercially at all and no estimate in terms of retail market value is available. The Garda authorities state that the estimated current value in the illicit trade of drugs seized in the State in 1978 and 1979 were £174,000 and £1,400,000 respectively and that the provisional figure for 1980 is £2,200,000. I should explain that the figure for 1979 includes an amount of £900,000 in respect of a single seizure of drugs and that the figure for 1980 includes an amount of £1,300,000 also in respect of a single seizure.
There is no offence known as "illicit drug taking". Statistics of drug offences are contained in the Annual Reports on Crime of the Commissioner, Garda Síochána, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas Library. The latest published report is in respect of the year 1979. The reports show that numbers of convictions for unlawful possession of drugs in 1977, 1978 and 1979 were 157, 222 and 385 respectively.
Is the Minister aware of the concern being felt by police organisations, parents' organisations and different organisations here in the city and throughout the country at the increase in the use of drugs, the number of drug pushers and the availability of drugs not alone in Dublin but in nearly every town throughout Ireland? What action, if any, are the Government taking to deal with this serious problem?
With regard to what the Deputy says, I have met a group, the Catholic Parents Secondary Schools Children's Association and have had a long discussion with them on this subject. They are concerned. I have had discussions with the Garda Commissioner in this area and, as I have said before in this House, I have asked the Commissioner to deploy whatever number of manpower is necessary to deal with this problem, which concerns everybody in this country and is a serious one. On it we have an obligation to protect our young people, our school children in particular. Also, because this scene is a profitable one and anywhere there are large profits and a fast buck turnover the criminal will find his way into it, we are concerned, as every member of this House should be. The parents play an exceptionally important role, and very shortly I hope to take measures or have measures finalised which I can take which will bring about an educational programme for the parents of the children who have to be protected, because they play a role even major to the role the guards play in this.
I thank the Minister for his reply and am delighted that the Government are taking steps to see that there are sufficient police to deal with it, because people claim that drug pushers in the city and throughout the country are getting away with murder at present and not enough of them are apprehended.
The comments being made to me now by the Deputy have been made to me by the parents' association whom I met and I have passed these comments on to the Garda Commissioner, again with my view that whatever manpower is necessary to deal with it or to specialise in it he should take and use in this area.
Would the Minister, in view of his expressed concern, give an undertaking to this House to allocate whatever extra resources in both manpower and finance are necessary to the Drug Squad and other people involved in combatting this evil?
I say "yes" to the Deputy for the reason that I believe that this is the lowest area that a criminal could operate in because the victims are victims for ever more and their lives are destroyed.
Will the Minister give them——
I will give them anything they ask for in this area, and gladly.