Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The figures are impressive. The Minister said that by Christmas there will be 14,000 gardaí when one includes those in training. In 18 months' time there will be 14,000 trained gardaí. There is a great deal of action. There are a few pilot joint policing committees in some areas of the city. The guidelines for same will come from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in the next few days and will go before the justice committee. Some of those policing committees operating on a pilot basis in parts of Dublin are working well. Members of the community have an opportunity to talk with the gardaí and the local authority and plan their work in a comprehensive way.

I agree that different Departments fund youth centres. The Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism allocated millions of euro last week. We have the Young Peoples Facilities and Services Fund and have disbursed more than €100 million. That fund is exclusively for the drug task force areas in Dublin and Cork. Recently we gave some capital money to Waterford and Carlow. That was the first time, with the exception of Cork, that we had given capital money but we had given some services money to a few areas previously. That fund will be rolled out in a structured way. We have targeted mainly the Leinster towns. It is not a case of sending Deputies home with nice letters telling them a fortune is being spent on their areas. We have to cater for young people who are at risk from drugs based on the evidence.

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