Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

As these moneys are ring-fenced for seven years, only a small amount has become available to the Exchequer in the past 12 months or thereabouts. While it would be fine if more CAB money were to come our way, I am more concerned about the overall amount of money available for drug treatment, rather than its origins.

The Deputy referred to a figure of €43 million available for community treatment projects this year. When an additional €25 million mainstreamed to other Departments is added, this amounts to funding of more than €70 million. More than 600 people are employed on projects, services or facilities which started at community level.

As the treatment funding to which the Deputy referred is the responsibility of the Health Service Executive, I have no control over it. Approximately 450 people outside Dublin are participating in methadone programmes. A couple of years ago, no one outside Dublin was involved in such programmes because anyone who wanted to participate in them had to take a train or bus to Dublin every day.

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