Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

While I am not aware of the comments outlined concerning a spread of the drugs trade to provincial towns and such views were not included in his formal speech, it may well be that the Garda Commissioner made such comments in the course of the AGSI conference. While the drugs trade may be more pronounced in cities, I accept it is unrealistic to think it would be confined to the largest centres of population. This reality has been acknowledged through the national drugs strategy and the consequences arising from this situation are being addressed through the implementation of the strategy. In that regard, I am in regular contact with senior members of the Garda Síochána and my officials also have ongoing contact with members of the force.

All regional drugs task forces, RDTFs, have action plans in place and money has been allocated to the ten task forces to progress implementation of their plans this year. Funding will be increased on an incremental basis in line with the progress and capacity of the task forces over the coming years to achieve the full roll-out of these plans, which are estimated to have a full cost in the region of €12.2 million per annum. The premises initiative, which was originally designed to meet the accommodation needs of community-based drugs projects in local drugs task force areas, has been expanded to include the whole country.

Recent allocations under the young people's facilities and services fund illustrate the move towards a countrywide focus. This fund was established to assist in the development of preventative strategies and initiatives in a targeted manner through the development of youth facilities and services in disadvantaged areas where a significant drug problem exists or has the potential to develop. Up to now, the focus has been on the 14 local drug task force areas in Dublin, Cork and Bray, but Limerick, Waterford, Galway and Carlow have also been included for some service projects. The Deputy will be pleased to know that recently I allocated €2 million for the development of high quality youth facilities in Waterford and Carlow. The Department is also examining the possibility of including some more urban centres under this initiative.

Fieldwork for a new drug prevalence study will be carried out from late 2006 to mid-2007. Preliminary analysis will be undertaken in the months following, with a first report of national prevalence figures and trends expected in late 2007. With the base figures available from the original 2002-03 survey, the outcome of this work will give a more solid basis for assessing developments in the drugs trade.

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