Mr. Jim Doherty:

I will take that question. The primary things that need to be done now include the re-establishment of regular meetings with the Department. Those are cost free and it is about time they were re-established. Also required is the prioritisation of the task force's local drug strategy. The task force takes the national drug strategy and creates a version of that for the local area in which it acts. We need that to be prioritised, recognised and respected by all the agencies that are involved.

We also need the Minister to have a much stronger focus on trying to bring in the other Departments. Education is a critical player in drugs task forces. We are charged with working with young people and we try so much to do prevention work with them. Justice is also a key player. The environment, in the sense of the local councils, is a key player. The Garda is a key player, as is the Department of Health. Unfortunately, the move to a health-led response has sometimes de-emphasised the need for the whole community of agencies to respond. That work needs to be prioritised and strengthened.

Another thing that will do much to guarantee our future and our ability to implement the citizens' assembly recommendations is the linkage between our funding and the broader health budget. It is incompatible for us to say there is a health-led agency delivering health-led responses but its funding is going to go down by 5% over ten years while the health budget increases by 50%. If there is a strategic focus on what we are doing as part of the panoply of health responses, we have to be treated as part of the panoply of health responses. That has caused all sorts of difficulties and problems. We are not asking for a penny more than other health services get. We are just asking for the respect of being treated like that. We need the community of agencies to be brought together.

The Department of Education decided not to attend drug task forces many years ago and engagement with education is at a low point. That is a critical point because if you are not at the table, you cannot continually express your policy and that has created all sorts of difficulties and problems for task forces over the years. When people think about drugs task forces, they think we are going to work for the young people and be involved. Of course, that is a critical part of what we do and we still do work with young people. However, we generally work in the absence of high-level influence within the Department of Education.