Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Broughan for raising the matter. On 7 January, my Department received an application from Howth Sutton Community Council for funding to establish a drug and alcohol prevention project in south-east Fingal, which would serve communities in Baldoyle, Bayside, Sutton and Howth. The council wishes to set up a project to address a gap in service provision that has arisen as a result of the closure in June 2012 of a community-based drugs project serving the Howth-Sutton peninsula. Funding for the latter project was withdrawn by the HSE as a result of deficits with regard to governance, financial control and accountability that emerged during an audit of the project.

The need for support within communities for education on prevention for young people and support for families has been identified by Howth Sutton Community Council on the basis of findings from a strategic evaluation of projects conducted by the Dublin north east local drugs task force in late 2011, as indicated by the Deputy. This evaluation included the former project serving the Howth-Sutton peninsula.

Supplementary research undertaken with local schools and community actors in late 2012 also informed the research findings.

The key recommendations arising from the research are that a project be developed in partnership with existing community and statutory agencies, which would work with schools and youth and family support groups to develop local strategies for substance misuse education and prevention. The proposal envisages that the project would initially focus on prevention, education and family support, with expansion into client case management to be undertaken in the medium term if resources become available. The cost of the project, which would involve hiring a co-ordinator and a project worker, is estimated at €79,000 per annum.

As the Deputy will be aware, drugs task forces play a key role in assessing the nature of the drug problem in their areas and co-ordinating action at local level so that there is a targeted response to the drug problem in local communities. Some €29.95 million has been allocated to the drugs initiative in 2013. The majority of this contributes to the running of community-based drugs projects supported by local and regional drugs task forces. This includes an allocation of €988,234 to Dublin North East Drugs Task Force, which has responsibility for tackling the drug problem in the south-east Fingal area.

It is a matter for each drugs task force to decide which projects to support based on agreed priorities for its area within the overall budget available to it. The allocation to Dublin North East Drugs Task Force was determined on the basis of the community-based drugs projects it recommended for funding in 2013.

I have been in contact with Howth-Sutton Community Council. I wrote to Mr. Sargent in January 2013 and have advised the council to submit its proposal to Dublin North East Drugs Task Force for consideration. I have indicated in the letter that my Department will consider the proposal if it has been recommended by the task force. At this stage, the drugs task forces have been advised of their allocations for 2013. The funding of any additional measures is contingent upon the resources available to me for the year.

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