Mr. Dermot Gough:

On behalf of the Dublin north east local drug and alcohol task force, I thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to come here this morning. My name is Dermot Gough and I am accompanied by my colleague, Ms Marian McKenna, who is a director of the local drugs task force and also TravAct, which works with Travellers in the area.

I manage an addiction project in Darndale, Dublin 17. I have 20 plus years experience of working in the area of addiction and homelessness and I suppose I have that unique trait of working across the voluntary, statutory and community sectors.

I currently manage the Dales Centre, which is a community based addiction centre set up in and by the local community. It is important to note that it was set up by the community 14 years ago. We are funded entirely through the HSE and the Dublin north east local drugs task force. We work closely, as do all the projects in the area. As set out in the brief the committee received, there are 20 or so youth and drug projects in the area which would work closely with each other but also with the task force. I sit on a number of committees, including the treatment and rehabilitation of the task force.

I will give a brief background of the task force. Its role is to complement the National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016. The service level agreement of the Dales and all of the projects in the area would reflect and be in line with the aims and objectives of the national strategy. We received over €1 million funding annually in Dublin North-East to go across all of the projects and the role of the task force is very much to identify gaps in services and work to extend the level of drug services in the area. In the future, our brief is looking at merging alcohol in with drugs, that is, the national drugs strategy with the national substance misuse strategy, and fill in identified gaps.

I will speak on my own experience, and the experience of the other projects in the task force area, of gangland crime which is the topic here. Addiction is a hugely complex area and we need to say that from the outset. Mark Twain, for example, is credited with saying, "Giving up alcohol is easy; I have done it hundreds of times." It shows how complex addiction can be.

When one begins to talk about addiction and drugs and alcohol in Ireland, nearly everybody has an opinion and he or she will offer that opinion. Often it is quite simplistic. That may be down to the fact that Ireland has a unique association, and problems, with alcohol. There is probably not a family in the country that is not touched by alcohol addiction, or certainly the damages of alcohol in some way, and I would include my own family in that.

I do not have the answers to stopping gangland crime. It, too, is a complex issue.

The projects with which I am involved take a rehabilitative approach. We try to work with people and build relationships with them, no matter who they are. We deal with some of the most challenging people in society. They are marginalised, excluded and operate within a subculture. It is not unusual for clients to walk into our facilities wearing bullet-proof vests. Also, when we make appointments with clients, they often change the times from week to week because of the danger of keeping regular appointments. Often they have been warned by gardaí that their lives are at risk so they cannot stick to regular routines.

The drug services are very good at working with such people. They open the door to them and welcome them in, despite the fact that they are quite challenging to deal with. Those of us who work in this area cannot but be affected by it. We work with people who have lost brothers, sisters, mothers or fathers through gangland crime and addiction. People ask why they do not call the police. We have all seen the television series, "Love/Hate" which showed that to be a "rat" or to "grass up" on a neighbour or someone in the area is a social taboo. Not only is there a huge social stigma around being a rat, as Nidge would say, there can also be enormous repercussions for the individual and his or her family. It is very difficult for the Garda Síochána to address that issue.

Drug users are using cocaine, heroin and cannabis or "weed", all of which are illegal substances. Therefore, by virtue of using illegal substances, drug users are criminals. Is legalisation the answer here? Do we legalise drugs? That is a topic for debate but I believe the short answer is "No". There is no simplistic answer to this problem. We know that authorities in the US have spent billions on the war against drugs but they have not made a dent in the drugs trade. Can we learn anything from that? We know that alcohol is legal. Dr. Bobby Smith, a consultant psychiatrist spoke at a conference last week and argued that alcohol is a gateway drug. For a large proportion of the people he comes into contact with - and for those we work with - alcohol was their first drug of choice. Do we go back to the days of Prohibition and impose a ban on alcohol?

Our brief is rehabilitation. We believe that in order to halt the increasing levels of gangland crime, we must reduce the demand for drugs. Drugs and gangland crime are inherently linked. We must increase the number of options for people who want to use addiction services. We must also increase the provision of such services to drug users, as well as the provision of associated and ancillary services, including mental health services. Addiction and mental health problems are strongly related. We have extremely high levels of suicide in this country.

It is also important that we invest in schools and early education programmes. Almost every drug user who uses our services was an early school leaver. There is a very distinct link between early school leaving and drug use. Diversionary activities are also hugely important. Youth services, youth reach programmes and alternatives to mainstream education as well as additional sporting and recreational facilities are also vital.

There is an acute need for an increase in resources to allow for the expansion and development of our services and to enable us to plan strategically. All of our funding comes through the HSE and we are very grateful for that. However, the funding is provided on a yearly basis which makes it very difficult to plan strategically for a three or five year period. The role of the Garda Síochána is also hugely important. We have an excellent relationship with gardaí, as do all of the drugs projects. Garda resources must be increased and we must involve gardaí who are confident working in this area because they are working with very challenging people. Finally, there is a need for increased co-operation between local communities and various statutory bodies. When the national drugs strategy was first launched, there was significant buy-in from the Departments of Education and Skills, Health and Social Protection but that has waned to some degree.

I am not sure what winning the war against drugs actually means but I do know that we must work with people to help them to make positive choices in their lives and move away from addiction and criminal activity.