Ms Grace Hill:

I thank Deputy Colm Burke for his comments. The 24 drug and alcohol task forces are in place. The local task forces were established in 1997 and the regional groups were set up around 2006. In 2010, then, there were 24 drug and alcohol task forces. No funding has been coming to the front line in the cases of any of the task forces. That is the issue. As I said at the start, we send in our pre-budget submission as part of the Estimates process. The response from the Department unusually states that it has got €5 million or €6 million more in funding for this area. The problem, though, is that not a lot of that extra money is coming to the front line. I refer to the work being done at the coalface of this issue by Mr. Hamilton and JADD and all the other drugs services on the front line.

The Department will often state it is going to spend the money on residential beds, dual diagnosis or tier 4 services. It already has its own wish list in this regard. No additional funding has come to the front-line services in the last ten years. This year, it is proposed that €1 million for the whole country will be spread out to improve accessibility to front-line services. The 24 task forces are competing for a share of that €1 million, in addition to I do not know how many drugs projects also operating in those areas. There is also the €500,000 in funding allocated in the context of crack cocaine use. That is all that is proposed in funding for the front-line services.

I feel that is where the disparity is.