Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The emerging needs fund is not the overall Government spend on this area. Our budget is between €30 million and €35 million a year. Other projects worth over €20 million have been brought into the mainstream. The figures in our Department will never increase very much because we constantly send items into the mainstream health and education services as they are piloted and evaluated.

Almost 600 people work on projects that started at local drugs task force level or young people's fund level. The State invests significantly in this area. More may be needed and that is why we came up with the emerging needs fund idea. I accept Deputy O'Shea's point that new drugs appear regularly, requiring new responses.

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