Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

That is excellent, thank you. We will be as brief as possible. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The Drug Treatment Court is a very interesting project. It was established in my own constituency of Dublin Central in 2001 as a pilot project. The purpose of the project was to look at people who were abusing drugs, ending up in court and receiving a conviction, and to put in place an alternative mechanism for dealing with them rather than sending them to prison. It was a restorative justice mechanism and it came under the auspices of the Courts Service. A specific judge was appointed to deal with it. It was an excellent idea and it has operated over the last ten years in one local electoral area in the north inner city.

The project has had varying degrees of effectiveness, but once the flurry of activity, enthusiasm and publicity died down following its establishment, it was left to its own devices. I do not think it achieved as much as it could. A review has been carried out over the last year and some structural proposals have been made, namely, that it would be transferred from the Courts Service directly to the clerk and deputy clerk of the District Court and Circuit Court. Instead of the Courts Service having responsibility, it would chair an advisory committee that would consist of all the relevant stakeholders, including the Garda, the HSE, the City of Dublin VEC, the Probation Service and the Courts Service itself.

While the proposals are welcome, the issue goes much further. There is a need for much greater awareness of the court in the communities affected by the drugs scourge. I believe that the local drugs task force should be involved, which has not occurred to date, even though the force was involved in the court's establishment in the first instance. Likewise, the Judiciary seems to be ignorant of the sanction and greater awareness is required here. The legal profession needs to be more aware as well, so that this can be part of the way lawyers handle cases with their clients. It seems that the north inner city is far too restrictive an area for the court to operate efficiently, and we need to extend it to a broader catchment area.

With a new Government, we should be looking at as many alternative sanctions to imprisonment as possible. The prison population has doubled since the drugs court was established. We should be going in the opposite direction, but we have been regressing. We should be examining restorative justice, community service orders and the alternative approach. The Minster should consult widely with all the relevant stakeholders, especially the public representatives who are deeply involved in their communities and are concerned with these problems. The Minister should be doing so with a view to mainstreaming the project.

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