Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)

The Minister mentioned residential centres. The people involved must beg for money. Every week, those people who try to do something useful must engage in fund raising. All voluntary groups must beg for money.

This problem must be tackled seriously. The proceeds from the Criminal Assets Bureau should be ring-fenced and spent in this area. It should be spent on prevention programmes and schemes to give people a chance to stay off drugs.

As for community policing, proper gardaí are required. Every Garda station must have a number of gardaí specifically allocated to tackling drug abuse. I am tired of hearing from residents that although the drug dealers are known, the Garda cannot tackle them. Although everyone seems to know who is involved, no one wishes to tackle the problem.

It has been noted that rehabilitation will become the drugs strategy's fifth pillar. However, families must become involved in the treatment and addicts must be given a chance to get off drugs completely, to return to society and to get a job. We must greatly increase our expenditure on education and in community facilities to give young people a chance.

This is not happening at present. The money set aside for the regional drugs task force is approximately €200,000 per county. As I stated last week, such a sum will not deliver much. It will not deliver effective youth programmes and will only employ one or two staff in an office. It will not achieve results. The Minister of State said €5 million has been allocated to the regional drugs task forces of which, half way through the year, 13% to 20% has been spent. A sum of €5 million out of potential expenditure of €12.2 million is far from what must be spent to achieve results. While I accept it cannot be spent in a single year, this problem is far from resolution. One should face facts. If the Minister of State deals in facts, Members will work with him.

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