Mr. Jim Doherty:

As part of the response, we have taken over and become the local agency for the DRIVE programme. To those who are not familiar with it, DRIVE is a national policy approach to drug-related intimidation. One thing that we do locally and that many task forces are doing is building it within the nexus of family support. Since the previous iteration of the drugs strategy, family support has become a recognised service offering for drugs task forces for a number of reasons. One is that family members are often permanent people in the lives of drug users and are well placed. If we can train them a little bit, they will be well placed to offer continuing and forever support to that person. In addition, families are the ones who are targeted by drug-related intimidation and its victims. The approach many task forces have taken is to try to offer family support services and then have a close relationship with the local gardaí. Local relationships with all of these agencies tend to be great because you know the person and it is good. If I can make a slight criticism, although I know it is not something the Garda can necessarily do anything about, the turnover of people in Garda positions can cause difficulties, simply because so much of it is based on personal relationships.