John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Wall for his kind comments at the outset. Prevention and awareness are two different aspects of the problem. We work with local authorities and sporting organisations. They play a key role, primarily from the point of view of being a deterrent. Local authorities work with soccer and GAA clubs, among other groups, through the young people's facilities and services fund on programmes that aim to divert young people away from drugs.

Awareness falls into a couple of main categories. Most of the awareness campaigns that we run are through the education system. I refer to the SPHE and the Walk Tall programmes in schools. In addition, we have run public awareness campaigns, for example, on cocaine. This year the Department will spend €500,000 through local drugs task forces to deal with the dangers of cocaine use in local projects. It is not fair to say we are not working with sporting organisations and national bodies. Perhaps the manner in which we work with them is not necessarily highlighted but the involvement is evident through the work of the local drugs task forces to help divert people away from the drug culture.

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