John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and the Minister of State's opening statement. Implementing a national drugs strategy requires the leadership of a Minister but also requires a whole-of-Government response. I am disappointed that it has taken a year from the launch of the strategy until now for us to have this debate. This debate should have happened much sooner and there should have been an emphasis on the implementation of that programme.

Nevertheless, the Minister of State's opening statement gave rise to hope. It is well acknowledged that those seeking treatment experience better outcomes when the treatments are delivered in their communities. The work, projects and programmes developed over many years by both local and regional drug and alcohol task forces need to be acknowledged. One concern I have is that in a direct reply to me earlier this year, the Minister of State said:

In excess of €27.6 million in funding has been allocated to task forces by the Department of Health and the HSE for community-based drug initiatives this year. This level of funding is consistent with the amounts provided in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

We have come through a difficult time but I am concerned that while the budgets of both the HSE and the Department of Health during that period have increased, the task forces have been left behind. That has caused problems because they are forced to provided diminished services with reduced funding. They are in competition for staff. People who work on these projects as counsellors and so on are finding alternative work elsewhere through other publicly-funded projects, some of which may be funded by the HSE. I welcome that the Minister of State announced an additional €1 million funding, with €10,000 for local task forces and €15,000 for regional task forces. However my concern is that it is once-off funding. If they are going to provide any continuity of services, task forces need an annual funding base. They need certainty on funding because these programmes cannot be turned on and off.

Later this year, the Minister of State is developing a new programme to promote community awareness of alcohol-related harm. In that regard, €250,000 will be made available in 2018 for phase 1 and €1 million next year, which will be divided among the various task forces. This funding is grossly inadequate. I am sure there will be funding for other alcohol-related issues but she should consider the amount spent on road safety awareness. When one compares the number of accident fatalities with drug-related deaths, we are not putting the same level of effort into prevention and awareness. Allocating €250,000 to all local and regional task forces and €1 million in a full year will not be sufficient to do what we expect it to do. I ask the Minister of State to review this realistically.

I agree with the comment of my colleague Deputy Chambers regarding methadone. For too long, people have been prescribed methadone. It has played an important role and has brought a degree of stability to people's lives. However, many people have been left on methadone programmes indefinitely. There must be better progression and long-term outcomes, and other alternatives need to be sought. I am not critical that people have entered programmes, but I am critical that enough people are not progressing through them and exiting.

Finally, the Minister of State mentioned the gardaí and the issues of serious crime. I acknowledge that the Garda has been successful in some high profile intelligence-led operations. However, I am concerned that divisional drug units which have all been reduced in size. While well-known figures are arrested and big seizures are taking place, my concern relates to those who are dealing in our communities and on street corners. I am regularly contacted by constituents about this and I am sure the Minister of State has the same experienced but divisional drugs squads are not as large as they used to be. While it is not directly the responsibility of the Minister of State's Department, she has responsibility for national drugs strategy, which requires a whole-of-Government response. This issue needs to be addressed because I am seeing more and more drug dealing in public and that needs to be dealt with.

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