Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)

I will not criticise the Minister of State, whose heart is in the right place. Asking any group to choose which service to remove is difficult, but last night's television coverage of another shooting proved that crime, much of it relating to drugs, is alive and well on the streets of Dublin. The Government must do everything possible and take the drugs issue seriously if we are to get anything done. We cannot continue to pass the buck. Irrespective of whether the money comes from the Department directly, the HSE or elsewhere, this matter falls under the drugs umbrella and must be faced. The buck stops with the Minister of State.

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting Aiséirí services in County Tipperary. Using 28-day periods and the 12 steps, that unit deals with people who are drugs and alcohol addicted. It provides an excellent service that gives people hope and continues to treat them afterwards.

In my area, the local Inchicore drugs team has been asked to reduce its budget by €30,000. While I know that the Minister of State did not ask it personally, it must make cutbacks. Finding areas in which to make those cutbacks is difficult. Reductions are occurring everywhere.

Aiséirí and another service in County Wexford are being asked to reduce their budgets by 14%, a considerable amount of money for groups trying to treat vulnerable people. In the next year, those projects will lose out on €67,000. This is endemic of society. If we are asking drugs task forces to remove services, we must be prepared to shore them up in other ways.

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