Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)

It is a question. The Minister says he is happy that €5 million has been given to the regional drugs task forces but that is less than €250,000 per county to tackle drugs. It will not even cover four or five staff in a treatment centre or working with young people to prevent them taking the drugs road. Will he return to the Government and ask for an increase in money to fight drugs? Youth groups, voluntary groups and youth federations hold table quizzes and fundraising events every week to raise a few euro to pay their staff and their electricity bills and the Minister of State says he does not want the money raised through the profits from drugs crime to be put back into the fight against it. We do not even spend €1 million per week in the fight against drugs but drug dealers are making millions per day from drugs. With so little funding available, we have no chance of tackling the problem.

I am disappointed to hear the Minister of State claim to be in favour of using moneys seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau for drug prevention and drug treatment programmes given that his Government voted down the opportunity to ring-fence the €16 million raised by the bureau in recent years. This amounts to only a few million each year and the revenue the CAB will raise each year is easy to predict. This money is needed on the ground to tackle the drug problem. No one can argue that money made from the sale of drugs should not be spent on preventing drugs being peddled. I am disappointed to hear the Minister of State argue that this cannot or will not be done. We need all the money we can get to tackle drugs. The groups seeking on our behalf to keep young people off drugs are not being given the help they need. The use of CAB moneys for this purpose offers an opportunity to put another few euro their way to assist them in their work. The problem can only be addressed through money, resources and staff. There is something seriously wrong in this country of which we are so proud when a person must wait 12 months for a place on a drug treatment programme.

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