Home > Dail Eireann debate. Private members' business - Crime prevention: motion.

[Oireachtas] Dail Eireann debate. Private members' business - Crime prevention: motion. (10 Oct 2006)

External website: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2...


Mr. Gregory: I move: That Dáil Éireann notes:

the heroin drugs crisis that continues to cause appalling human misery in Ireland today;

the spiralling drug related crime and feuding drug gangs that are a cause of great fear and concern in many communities;

the huge wealth involved in the drug trade exploited by a small number of major crime gangs;

the increasing numbers of young people in disadvantaged areas being attracted into drug crime by the lavish lifestyles enjoyed by relatively minor drug dealers from within their own communities;

the unprecedented seizures of heroin in recent months, notably a consignment with a street value of €7 million seized in Ratoath, County Meath, and a further consignment worth €10 million intercepted in Belgium en route to a private Irish airfield via private jet;

the fact that the latter consignment was almost twice the value of all drugs seized during the whole of 2005 at Dublin Airport;

the fact that drug seizures account for on average a mere 10% of drug availability;

the scale of the potential risk to society in this State posed by the trafficking of such vast amounts of heroin; and

the health implications for drug users and other vulnerable young people and the collateral damage caused to families and communities;

deplores the failure of the Government and of the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform:

to formulate an effective strategy to combat the worsening drugs crisis; and

to provide the Garda with sufficient funding to continue running Operation Airwaves which, until its cancellation, monitored the movements of small aircraft at a number of the country's private airfields and led to the seizures of quantities of drugs;

deplores the failure of the Government and of the Minister for Finance:

to respond to the lack of customs cover in 27 private airfields in the State and particularly to the situation at Weston Aerodrome brought to his attention in Dáil Questions in December of last year, February of this year, and again in September of this year; and

to show regard for basic security measures at Weston Aerodrome where there were only 16 customs inspections during 2005;

calls on the Government:

to acknowledge the grave error it has made and continues to make in failing to provide adequate Customs and Garda cover at private airfields which allowed drug traffickers to import large drug consignments into this State;

to immediately deploy a permanent Customs and Garda presence at Weston Aerodrome and other similar private airfields to prevent their use for drug trafficking and other crime;

to immediately provide sufficient funding to the Garda in order that it can re-establish Operation Airwaves to specifically monitor and prevent the importation into the State of drugs via small aircraft and airfields;

to initiate immediate reform of the customs and excise function of the Revenue Commissioners supported by any necessary budgetary increase to fill this serious gap in customs cover;

to request the Criminal Assets Bureau to investigate all those connected with the major heroin seizure referred to;

to expand the Criminal Assets Bureau to include regionalised structures to ensure that middle ranking drug traffickers are targeted at local level throughout the State;

to radically increase the numbers of community gardaí participating in disadvantaged urban areas; and

to review the manpower needs of Garda drug units in drug black spot areas and the resources available to them in order to extend the strategy used in Operation Marigold to all areas where heroin drug crime poses a serious risk to the community and so develop a new impetus in the ‘supply-control' aspect of the overall response to the drugs crisis.

[For the full debate click on this link to the Oireachtas website]

Item Type
Dail Debates
Publication Type
Irish-related
Drug Type
Substances (not alcohol/tobacco)
Intervention Type
Crime prevention
Date
10 October 2006
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