John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

To answer the last question on funding from other Departments for the drugs strategy, I understand the project to which Deputy Byrne referred is one which was funded by the Department of Education and Science. I will answer the question in that context, but if it is not I will revert to the Deputy after the debate. Our drug advisory group met today. Unfortunately I could not attend the meeting because the business of the House was voted upon. One issue which arose concerned the Department of Education and in that context I will meet the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy O'Keeffe.

This aspect related to projects that were mainstreamed and originally funded from another Department. I can confirm that projects that are mainstreamed to the HSE while there will be a percentage cut, it is in the order of 5% or 7% and not of the same scale. So those projects may experience some difficulty, but not a withdrawal of funding as has been indicated in this case with the Department of Education and Science. I will meet the Minister for Education and Science to ascertain the rationale and what can be done to address it.

Deputy Stanton asked about the analysis of costs. Figures for the total package of costs do not seem to exist in the global sense that he requested. He also asked how we would do things better and whether the entire strategy was a farce. It is not a farce, far from it. Considerable work went into developing the strategy. Let me make this point forcefully. It is not my strategy, but the strategy of the people involved in the area. Considerable consultation went into it and it runs for an extended period. While incrementally in any given year we might not achieve as much as we want, if we do not have a sense of direction as to where we are going, we are at nothing. The strategy clearly sets out a direction. My job as Minister of State with responsibility for the strategy is to try to progress it year on year, but it is not based on any one year. I met representatives of all the task forces earlier in the year and indicated to them that inevitably there would be some level of reduction in funding. While the headline reduction figure across the area is 11%, the reduction in the level of funding to the local task forces is in the order of 8.5% and the regional task forces, on which we spent €10 million in 2009, will receive €10 million again this year. The reason for this is the level service provided by the regional task forces would not have developed as much.

I agree with Deputy Stanton that heroin use has increased throughout the country. The anecdotal evidence and a number of recent surveys have shown that. It emerged out of Dublin, extended down the east coast and throughout Leinster and is now around the southern part of the country. While it is also a problem in other parts of the country, those would be the parts where it is most prevalent. We would have had the anecdotal evidence of that from people presenting for treatment, etc., and we have dealt with it. We have worked with the HSE to have new clinical capacity available in Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Cork, Tralee and Limerick all operational in the first quarter of next year. While clinics are of great value they are nothing without the back-up of what we call "level 2" GPs. At the moment, unfortunately, people from some of those areas need to travel to Dublin. The funding for that was put in place last year. The secret of success when there is less money involves a commitment from the HSE to reorganise the way it is doing business. It is providing clinical staff in those centres from within its existing allocation of resources. That is how we will make progress.

While the level of funding has reduced, so has our cost of living. I spoke to representatives of task forces and asked them to carefully consider efficiencies. They need to review their rents, overheads and use of manpower. Those who are employed as counsellors need to be used for counselling services and facilities need to be shared, etc. That is what each task force has undertaken to do. While people may disagree, yesterday when the Taoiseach was asked a question he indicated that our cost of living had dropped back to what it was in February 2007. In February 2007 the funding we made available to task forces was less than €28 million. The funding we are allocating to task forces this year, while less than last year is considerably more than it was in 2007 and is in the region of €31 million. While I am not taking away from the difficulties it will pose for task forces to live within that, if we reorganise and co-ordinate better and seek efficiencies, particularly in the areas of administration and overheads, I believe that we should be able to deliver again this coming year all of the front-line services we delivered in 2009.

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