John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

The delay in publishing the strategy was due to the fact that during the consultation process, much interest was raised in the area of alcohol and the relationship between alcohol and drugs. In that regard, the Government recently made a decision that alcohol would be included in a joint strategy. However, the reality was that much work had been done towards the preparation of a current strategy. As I said, the current drugs strategy will go to Government in late May or early June.

In the autumn of this year, a new steering group will work to incorporate alcohol into what will be a substance misuse strategy but that will not be available until some time next year. There will be two steps to this.

I welcome the Government's decision to include alcohol which was strongly put forward during the consultation process. I said the contracts with the NDST will terminate on 30 April and the funding, to which the Deputy referred, will be managed by the Department.

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