I would like to ask the President-in-Office if the Council thinks that there is now a need for harmonization of the law across all Member States as to how to deal with drug traffickers in general. When I was a member of the Irish Senate, the Upper House of Parliament in Ireland, as spokesperson on justice and law reform there I put through the Upper House legislation dealing with the confiscation of assets of convicted drug dealers and drug traffickers and also of people attempting illegally to import drugs into Ireland.

This has been a very powerful tool, and possibly uniquely, as I suggested at the time, the money being confiscated should be put towards rehabilitation of drug addicts and education programmes in our schools and colleges, to encourage young people to take informed decisions about the use of drugs. I think there is an onus on Parliament, on the Council and on the Commission to ensure that this most damaging social, public health and public order crisis is now tackled, because it has built up over the last ten years without any noticeable concerted action at the European level.