Government should have taken case over drugs claims - Ring

The Government should have taken legal action against journalist Justine Delaney-Wilson and RTÉ over claims in a book and broadcast by the station that a Cabinet member had used cocaine, the Dáil was told.

Fine Gael community affairs spokesman Michael Ring said he was disappointed the Government did not act because "this serious allegation has been left to hang over 15 Ministers".

Mr Ring called for gardaí to target parties where drugs were available in middle-class and rich areas in the run-up to Christmas.

"We need to see some raids and to see the law applied equally across the State, not just in working-class areas," he said.

But Minister of State for drugs Pat Carey said he was "slow to be drawn" on the RTÉ issue, but he had already given his view. "Neither the book nor the programme made a contribution to helping address the issues surrounding cocaine. If anything, it simply glamorised it. As to whether the Government will take any action on it, I am awaiting the outcome of the RTÉ investigation to see what it feels its response ought to be. Whether any action will be contemplated after that, we will await that development."

During a debate on the national drugs strategy the Mayo TD said that "if there is a person in the Cabinet who is taking drugs that person should be identified" and Ms Delaney-Wilson should not be afraid to identify the Minister, "but she should not be using the good name of members of the Cabinet, judges or airline pilots to sell her book".

He said it was "wrong that somebody should make an allegation such as this against Ministers, judges, airline pilots and other professional people".

Referring to parties where drugs are taken Mr Ring said "a plain-clothes unit should be set up to talk to taxi drivers and find out where these parties are being held, and there should be equality in the way in which raids are carried out".

He also called for an Operation Freeflow-style approach to targeting drug abuse where up to 400 gardaí should be involved in stopping "the free flow of drugs in the capital and every other town and village in the country".