John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

During the public consultation process, it became very apparent there was much synergy between alcohol and drugs, particularly among young people and in respect of education, prevention and so on. However, we were fairly far advanced with the drugs strategy, which will be adopted as is without the inclusion of alcohol at this point.

One of the specific actions is that in September of this year, a steering group will be formed to bring the decision the Government made recently in respect of alcohol into a substance misuse strategy. It has approximately 12 months to do that.

The Deputy asked about the make-up of the steering group but that has not yet been decided. The idea is not to park the drugs strategy and wait. We did not set out to make that decision. The consultation process led us in that direction. It is important that if we are to engage in consultation, that we respond to what it throws up. We had not expected it to turn out like this but in light of what we have done, we have decided to go ahead with the drugs strategy.

The Deputy mentioned the Licensed Vintners Association. There are many similarities between alcohol and drugs but alcohol is not an illegal substance. We need to be conscious of that and deal with it. Many people, myself included, use alcohol and most use it sensibly. However, we need to make that very clear distinction and that is what this consultation process will be about.

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