Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The sum of €600,000 was set aside by the HSE for the campaign. The campaign was developed arising from an evaluation of the previous campaigns which were found to be less than effective because they were not focused enough, etc. I am advised that the deficiencies, such as they were, in the previous campaigns were taken account of. The HSE, along with our Department, will be carrying out an evaluation of the campaign.

One must bear in mind that the campaign, both local and national, will run for a three-year period. The local campaigns, which will involve long-term interventions as well as simply advertising awareness, will cost of the order of €2 million over the next three years. Separately, the Department of Education and Science and other agencies are working on awareness campaigns.

As to whether they are hard-hitting enough, I would not disagree with Deputy Ring. For example, one music magazine, which I will not name but which most people will know, produced a good specific issue on the drug culture. It submitted to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and to RTE what I regarded as a hard-hitting, but not offensive, advertising DVD which in both cases, I understand, was ruled to be in poor taste, and only a much more modified version of the advertisement was allowed to be broadcast. Sometimes it is extremely difficult to gauge how hard-hitting one can be.

I note Deputy Ó Snodaigh is here. He and I were at a seminar this morning organised by Merchants Quay Ireland where a publication on needle exchange programmes was launched which, in itself, is hard-hitting and will probably be disturbing. No doubt certain persons will find it necessary to complain about how blunt are the messages in that booklet. Frankly, we cannot have it both ways. We either get the message across clearly and bluntly, or we can pussyfoot around for ever and not be able to tackle the problem.

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