Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)

I congratulate the Minister of State on his recent appointment. Having listened to his reply, I am not sure that separating the misuse of alcohol is a good idea. Alcohol and drugs misuse are closely connected and it makes sense to have a co-ordinated approach to tackling the problems such misuse creates. What happened to the national alcohol policy that was introduced in 1996? Action 19 of the national drugs strategy indicated that the early use of alcohol and drugs by young people coming to Garda attention would be followed by community policing, and health and social services intervention in order that the problem of drug misuse could be diagnosed early and hopefully halted. Does the Minister of State believe this group has been effective in identifying young people at risk from alcohol and drug misuse, and providing early interventions? I believe social services have failed to provide the aftercare and have not intervened in many of these cases, something which needs to be addressed.

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