Dr. Eamon Keenan:

I do not want to pre-empt the report to be released tomorrow, but I just wanted to highlight the fact that there are cocaine problems right across society. This report will call for work to implement the framework to respond to illicit drug use in higher education. I ask the members to keep an eye on that report, which is being launched tomorrow. Dr. Michael Byrne from University College Cork has spearheaded that report, which was commissioned on foot of a request from Mary Mitchell O'Connor in her role as the Minister of State with responsibility for higher education.

With regard to the €850,000 funding, I will speak briefly now about the initiatives. We have asked the services that have submitted initiatives to show that there is a need identified within the CHO area; a readiness of the service to deliver the intervention; an infrastructure in place; governance to oversee the project; and potential for integrating with local networks and care pathways.

An evaluation needs to be built into that initiative in order that, as the Deputy said, after a year where we have received funding for the next three years, if this initiative is not producing the improvements and the services that we would hope for, it can be re-evaluated. This is the first opportunity that we have had to effectively address cocaine, including crack cocaine. We were looking forward to this as that call is going to go out before the end of January. Submissions will then be evaluated by my office, the National Social Inclusion Office, and we hope to start these initiatives in the second quarter of this year.