Like my other colleagues around the House and from the Government benches as well, I want to congratulate Deputy Ward on this Bill, which is well put together. I accept, as the Minister said, that a little bit of tweaking here and there and a little bit of change to X, Y and Z needs to be done. That could be achieved by leaving this Bill go forward to Committee Stage. I cannot help but think there is a bit of politics being played here tonight. As a previous speaker said, we are being berated here by a Government Minister who is telling us to come up with our own legislation and come up with a new plan. In fairness, we are putting new plans together all the time. We are putting forward new legislation. We are submitting ideas to the House. We are giving information to the House and providing credible opposition. Something we are all united on - the voices around the House have been all united tonight - is that there is a serious problem with nitrous oxide. I am familiar with this product because I used it in my catering business and in my bar and restaurant business. I am familiar with the size of it. It amazes me now when I see these products coming online. I used to buy the silver bullets in packs of ten which cost about €14.95 to buy for a catering business. I used to buy it from Musgraves or MP O'Sullivans and I would use that. Those in the medical profession would use the very large canisters. There is no need for the super-sized canisters that we are now finding in football and GAA pitches, in housing estates and on the edge of the road. Whether we are in Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Waterford or Galway, we are finding them everywhere. Every Tidy Towns committee is saying the same thing. The other thing that has not been addressed in this House is that when nitrous oxide canisters are put into incinerators, they cause huge damage across the country. Nobody is mentioning that. This is a serious problem that has been noted in the Dublin incineration plans. It is causing litter problems and damage to incinerators. As we all know in this House, nitrous oxide is just one of the issues. We have head shops in Cork city, Limerick city, Galway city and Dublin city. These head shops are selling legal highs. The nitrous oxide and the other items sold in head shops, are, to my mind, the gateway drugs of today. Kids are starting off as young as 12, 13 or 14 and being introduced to this. Years ago we used to hear stories of sniffing bags of glue. Now it is filling up a balloon and sniffing this laughing gas. It is a small way of getting into illegal highs, but what is next? Is it going to be marijuana in a year's time? Is it going to be cocaine? We all know this is readily available. We all know the types of characters that are supplying this. They are buying it from wholesalers or directly importing it on Amazon or from companies in China. They are buying large amounts of this, bringing it into the country and selling it directly, sometimes for three, four or ten times the price of what an ordinary bullet would actually cost. On the proposed legislation and how it has been put together, what the Government has said is very minute. The Government is saying it will wait for Europe. Why is Ireland not taking a lead on this? Why are we not the leading country on this? Why do we have to wait? For example, why did we have to wait for Ciaran Mullooly in Europe recently to head the charge on Mercosur? The Government stayed quiet. The Taoiseach was saying one thing in China and Fianna Fáil TDs were saying something else in the background. Here we are again, waiting for the almighty masters of Europe to tell us what to do. Why are we not taking charge of this ourselves? That is what we are meant to be doing. If we continue to respond by saying we have to wait for the European legislation to come in, this House is superfluous. There is no point in being in this House. There is no point in writing Irish legislation if we are going to be waiting for that. I have to say I am very disappointed. It seems to me that we are playing politics. I would like the Government to reverse this decision, as Deputy Alan Kelly has said. There is no shame in changing your mind at the eleventh hour when the idea is right. Leave it go to Committee Stage and leave us add extras such as the head shops. If we legislate to protect our young people, we can stop this.

Sentiment score: 0.01