Before the Minister leaves, I commend Deputy Ward on this Bill. This should have been brought in years ago. The issues with nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing gas to the common man and woman, have been causing damage for years. However, what has happened in recent years is that it has become a component of criminal activity. I am sorry, but the large-scale canisters have little use in this country in the professions the Minister spoke about. While I understand, in fairness to him, that on other occasions he has not opposed different legislation being brought in by the Opposition and let it go through, I cannot for the life of me think why he would not do the same here. This Bill may not be perfect, but certainly it is worthy of going to Committee Stage where he can bring in all of the amendments he wants. I do not understand the following: we know this issue has to be addressed, and he says he needs nine months to consider it. Why has his Department not been considering it before this? It is glaringly obvious that this issue has to be dealt with. I know the Minister has had a lot of change in his Department and has a whole range of issues coming over from the Department of children, but surely within the relevant section his officials knew this was an issue. I think the Minister's response is downright lazy. It is lazy. It is also lazy from his Department to take nine months. If I was in the Minister's shoes, I would think that this is a pretty simple Bill to draft. He goes on about regulation and how the gardaí would enforce this, etc. They are all pretty minor things that could be dealt with on Committee Stage. Why will the Minister not let the Bill through? Why can he not ensure, through working positively with the Opposition, that we deal with these issues on Committee Stage and protect our young people? I presume this will take more than nine months. If any situations happen within the next nine months, if serious incidents or accidents happen or, dare I say, if a death occurs because of this, we may replay this back to the Minister. This issue is glaringly obvious. It is not complicated. It has to be dealt with. We all know there are uses for this in catering, healthcare and a range of other things. What is going on now is you walk through any estate in every part of Ireland and you will find these canisters. The canisters are being brought into areas by criminals who are selling them. They are then distributed and young children are using them. There are a whole range of neurological impacts from them, which have been outlined by many Deputies already. I have heard stories in my own office in relation to people who have been pretty severely affected with severe burns as a consequence because they do not know what they are doing. There are addiction elements and a whole range of other elements. All of this is avoidable, if we had the regulatory process in place, if we had the licensing in place and if we had the enforcement capacity in place to allow gardaí to do their job. I have had gardaí speak to me about this. It has been raised with me that in particular parts of my constituency, the volume of it coming in is quite extraordinary. I am from rural Tipperary. We have a lot of towns, but still. It is at that extreme where young kids are going out at night or at weekend and using this. We are not necessarily talking about those who are involved in other activities later on when they are 17 or 18; we are talking about children who are 13, 14 or 15 years of age. I am really disappointed in the Department and the Minister because this is not something we should be having any form of political toing and froing on. This can be dealt with quickly. As someone who I think has the potential to change his mind for the right reason on the floor of the Dáil, I urge him to do so. If Sinn Féin had not brought in this Bill, we probably would have brought it in, to be honest. I encourage the Minister to accept it and not take the run-of-the-mill action whereby he just signs off on it and leaves it be because it is downright lazy. It is not good enough. I think the Minister is better than that. I think he has the capacity to deal with this very quickly through the various Stages of the Bill whether it is Committee Stage or Report Stage. This would ensure that the children of Ireland are not left open to this and do not have the opportunity to use this, that those who are involved in this at a criminal level have the legs taken out from them, that gardaí are empowered to seize these within reasonable reason in relation to what they are used for and that the law will protect that decision making. It would also ensure that communities across Ireland do not have the spectre of Tidy Towns groups going around every weekend picking these up canisters all over the place. From a healthcare point of view, it would ensure we do not have situations whereby every weekend if you go into University Hospital Limerick, South Tipperary General Hospital or many other model 3 or 4 hospitals across the country you will have a range of children, in particular, who will have burns on their faces and hands because of the misuse of this substance. There are also neurological and reproductive issues because of this. I ask the Minister to do the right thing. This Bill is not perfect and I do not think Deputy Ward said it was perfect, but it deserves to go to Committee Stage. I expect the Government to change its mind and do the right thing. We can all work on it then and at least it will be in the process of being legislated for and will give hope to people who know this is the right thing to do.

Sentiment score: 0.02