Ms Grace Hill:

I will answer that, if that is alright. I thank Deputy Shortall and it is great to see her again. We are in equal disbelief as the Deputy about the €500,000 proposed. We are doubly so, because we had already informed the Minister of State about the issues we face at the moment. He has had our proposal for over a year now about what we wanted to do to address crack cocaine. The €500,000, to our understanding, is for the entire country to deal with crack cocaine. It is for night-time economy piece, and it is for naloxone as well. That is why we said that the figure lacks total understanding of the gravity of this issue. We feel that the €6 million in total does as well.

In addition to the €500,000, there is €1 million there - again for the entire country - to improve accessibly into front-line drugs services. For us, this is a huge thing. Usually, the Minister of State says “Great, we have €5 million extra and here is how it is going to be spent”. It looks like there will be proposals invited for that. The €500,000 already puts us on the back foot. We are asking how much of that could be for Tallaght, considering the proportions of what we are dealing with.

If the funding is going to be targeted, we would find some comfort in that. The Minister previously committed, in the Dáil Chamber, to supporting the victims of the crack issue in Tallaght, Ballymun and Ballyfermot, the areas which have talked about the issue most. I do not know where that is at because there has been no guidance. We are in the dark as much as the Deputy is. That is why we urgently need insight. We need the Government to come out and make an announcement.

As far as I know, €1 million was put aside for task forces last year. Today, 1 December a year later, there has been no word about how that €1 million is to be spent. That is an example of the lack of urgency we are talking about. There has been a lack of urgency over the budget. We have been highlighting this issue since 2017.