Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

People are saying to me, and this is my view as well, that they have never seen it as bad. Open drug dealing has been mentioned. The amount of crack cocaine, as well as the fact that people are being addicted to crack cocaine, is the game changer that people are worried about. It is having an impact not only on individuals, families and children within those families, but also on communities. I will go back to that report. The €850,000 to focus on cocaine and crack cocaine is welcome. However, the Tallaght report talked about €1 million.

That is the scale of the issue and the challenge in that particular area. The Minister of State is talking about spreading that money over four, five or more groups. That funding might sound like an awful lot to the people listening to this meeting but when it is broken down and we consider staff and outreach to people who are addicted to crack cocaine, it is small money. The Minister of State might look again at that funding issue.

One of the changes that has happened in recent years has been the doing away with the idea of emerging trends. One of the emerging trends in Tallaght and many other areas of Dublin, and in Limerick and elsewhere, is crack cocaine. There needs to be flexibility within the task force. Would the Minister of State agree that there needs to be a funding stream for task forces to deal with emerging needs that are impacting their communities? What is the Minister of State's view on the idea of a fund being set aside for emerging needs?