Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

While I acknowledge the Deputy's comments, it would be misleading to give the impression that Clonmel or the south east has not been well resourced simply because the young people's fund covers the 14 local drugs task forces. Several years ago, four additional provincial centres, namely Limerick, Waterford, Carlow and Galway, two of which are in the south east, were selected for funding for current services. In the past couple of months, Carlow, Waterford and Limerick were the first areas outside the original 14 to receive funding for capital projects. The south east has done extremely well and Clonmel has benefited from the dormant accounts scheme, which allocated €300,000 to urban areas and €200,000 to smaller towns. The Clonmel Community Partnership received €180,000 to cover the cost of two youth workers, as well as funding for other projects. In the past few years, Clonmel has also received a significant grant for a swimming pool.

The Department of Education and Science provides the majority of funding for youth workers, whereas the young people's fund from my Department specifically covers at-risk youths. The independent report of the drugs strategy team referred in particular to Leinster towns such as Arklow, Portlaoise and Athlone and did not identify Clonmel as a priority. I had no part in the authorship of the report and, as far as I am aware, it based its findings on treatment, drug seizures and socioeconomic data. I will ask the team whether murders were also considered. A representative of the Garda Síochána was on the team and all relevant data should have been considered.

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