John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 73, 79 and 80 together.

I have been re-appointed as a Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, with responsibility for the national drugs strategy, community affairs and with special responsibility for integration policy. I can assure the Deputies that the change in responsibilities will have no implications for the level of commitment I will bring to tackling problem drug use in Ireland, nor indeed, that of the Government.

Work on developing a national drugs strategy is well advanced at this stage and the steering group, which is developing proposals in this regard, will be presenting me with their findings in the coming weeks. I expect to be presenting the draft strategy to Government for consideration in late May or early June. The measure, as approved by Government, will be published as an interim strategy pending the drafting and finalisation of a national substance misuse strategy. In this context, the Deputies should note that a new steering group will be established in the autumn to develop proposals for the overall substance misuse strategy, which will incorporate the already agreed drugs policy element. The group will be asked to report by the end of 2010.

As part of the restructuring proposed in the new drugs strategy, the national drugs strategy team, NDST, will be discontinued from 30 April. It is intended that proposals for the establishment of a new dedicated ministerial drugs office will be submitted to Government for consideration in the context of the new drugs strategy. In the interim, the general functions of the NDST will be absorbed appropriately within my Department.

In this regard, I would like to pay tribute to the members and staff in the NDST for their contribution over the years in tackling problem drug use in our society. It is intended that the new office will build upon a partnership approach across the statutory and community and voluntary sectors while facilitating improved governance, management and overall effectiveness.

To facilitate a smooth transfer of functions to the new office, the Deputies should note that transitional arrangements have been drawn up by my Department and are currently being rolled out. These cover a broad range of issues, including financial and day-to-day administrative issues in support of the work of the drugs task forces and local projects. While they do not endorse the recommendation to establish the dedicated ministerial office, the issues of concern to the community sector representatives on the steering group, who left the process in March, have since been largely addressed and they returned to the steering group process last week.

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