Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank my colleague, Deputy Dooley, for giving me an opportunity to make a brief contribution to this important debate. I welcome the partnership approach that is central to the national drugs strategy. Statutory, community and voluntary groups are working together to tackle the drugs problem. While many statutory bodies are clearly wholehearted in their support of the partnership approach, some of them are dragging their heels to a certain extent. The Minister of State recently announced that the national drugs strategy will be reviewed in 2008. I hope the review will recommend the setting of protocols to ensure total compliance with the spirit of the strategy on the part of all the statutory bodies.

Like my colleague, Deputy Rabbitte, I was in Tallaght on Tuesday to welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Carey, to the annual service of hope and remembrance in Killinarden parish for those who have been affected by drugs. The community addiction response programme, which hosted the event, welcomed visitors from other parts of Dublin, including the Tallaght rehabilitation project, the SWAN family support group, Jobstown assisting drug dependency, St. Dominic's Community Response Project and St. Aengus's Community Action Group. I mean it sincerely when I say that my colleague, Deputy Rabbitte, did a lot of progressive work when he was Minister of State with responsibility for this area. I am sure he does not mind me praising him and I am not a bit afraid to do so. I appreciate the work that has been done by successive Ministers of State, including my constituency colleague, Chris Flood, on the drugs problem.

I am glad that the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Carey, has taken the baton. The manner in which he is going about his business is impressing many people. When I was at the service in Killinarden on Tuesday, many people praised the time and energy he has devoted to his task over the past six months. I do not wish to be parochial when I mention that he has been to Tallaght on three occasions since he took office, which is greatly appreciated in the area. Somebody reminded me the other day that the Minister of State used to work as a teacher in Finglas, which is an area with high levels of early school leaving, and is therefore familiar with the need to do something about this problem. That person asked me whether the Minister of State has been able to persuade his Government colleagues, the Ministers for Education and Science and Finance, of the need to roll out early school programmes in all areas that are encountering problems with drug use, particularly heroin use. I understand that the person in question also raised this issue with the Minister of State. There is a view that if a full roll-out cannot be done immediately, plans will have to be put in place to initiate early school programmes in all RAPID areas, including parts of Tallaght, within a given timeframe. They can then be rolled out in Leader areas and, finally, in all other parts of the country. I understand that international research shows that the best way of preventing the misuse of drugs is to educate people as early as possible.

In the Minister of State's remarks in Tallaght on Tuesday, he referred to the reluctance of some statutory bodies to adopt a partnership approach, a problem to which I alluded at the beginning of this speech. Will representatives of the community sector have to resign again to ensure that the statutory bodies play a full and proper role in responding to the drugs crisis and getting involved in political engagement? While I do not want to repeat everything I have said, I feel I should mention again that the reputation of the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Carey, is very strong in the Tallaght area. He could easily be a Dáil candidate in Tallaght if he wanted to be. He has been out there several times. The Minister of State has shown a great deal of understanding of the problems of urban communities. He spends a great deal of time in urban constituencies.

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