Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

One of the Deputy's colleagues spoke to me about that recently. The buses were geared at the more chaotic people who would not go to treatment centres. This was the thinking behind them. I will follow up on the matter for the Deputy.

Many of the people who have a cocaine problem now were already attending services for other drug problems such as heroin. It is not necessary to have more counsellors specialising in a single drug. The HSE is upskilling many of the staff so they can provide a comprehensive service to clients, regardless of whether the drug is alcohol, heroin or cocaine. We look at other countries. There is an EU drug strategy. I do not know the position in America which is very much into law and order and where there is far less emphasis on harm reduction and treatment. It has often been said of America that unless one is in prison or going to prison one cannot access many of the services. At EU level officials are dealing with the EU drug strategy and we are observing and following best practice in trying to implement what is appropriate and good policy here.

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