Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

There are targets, but we need proper baseline data to follow up. We have the 2006 figure for heroin users, which showed a slight drop on the 2001 figure but showed that there were 2,000 plus outside Dublin. Six or seven years ago those people outside Dublin were probably included in the Dublin figure because one hears of stories of people who came from Arklow or Athlone every day by train.

When we get the figures next year I hope to see the figure in Dublin continuing to drop a little, but next year it may well be that the figures outside Dublin will have increased solely because the services now exist elsewhere. One hears dramatic headlines that the numbers in treatment in Athlone or Portlaoise have increased by 400%. That is a good development because it means that services are being provided, where previously they probably were not provided. A few of them might have been travelling to services in Dublin, but most of them were probably robbing or mugging or selling drugs to get money to buy their next fix. When we get this data next year we will have something with which to compare it. It will be the third set of figures for Dublin and the second set of figures for outside Dublin, and it will give us baseline data on how we are proceeding.

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