Louth TD call for ‘real plan' for country 'absolutely awash with cocaine'

A "real plan" is needed to deal with the problems caused by a country that is "at the minute, absolutely awash with cocaine", Louth Sinn Féin TD Ruairí Ó Murchú has told the Dáil.

He was speaking during questions to the Minister for Justice last week and pointed to underfunding of projects such as the Family Addiction Support Network (FASN) and youth diversion projects in Muirhevnamor and Cox’s Demesne. Deputy Ó Murchú said: "We have to be absolutely straight in the sense that Ireland at the minute is absolutely awash with cocaine and when we are dealing with addicts who would previously have had an issue with heroin. 

"We are probably talking about crack cocaine and that obviously leads to a particular set of issues particularly as regards crime and the impact on the wider community." He said it was time to ‘get real’ and a multiagency approach was urgently needed. "We need to deal with the fact of ongoing criminality, the bad examples that exist that we are all aware and know of. 

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"We have seen examples of where the Criminal Assets Bureau has taken action. We need to see more of that. I have seen drug dealers who have had houses taken off them. It is just the cost of doing business and then they are back in action again."

Deputy Ó Murchú added, "I have spoken to the senior Minister before about the chaos caused by drug addiction and by criminality and pointed out that we do not have the powers, whether we are talking about Tusla, the councils or right across to An Garda Síochána. There needs to be a real conversation. We need a real plan to deal with all of this."