Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is good and will be welcomed, but it is still not enough and does not bring funding back to the level in 2007 and 2008, before the 37% cut in funding to the services.

The Taoiseach stated in the foreword to the national drugs strategy that the Government "recognises the importance of supporting the participation of communities in key decision making structures [of the national drugs strategy] so that their experience and knowledge informs the development of solutions to solve problems related to substance misuse in their areas". Despite this commitment of An Taoiseach, all the key decisions, such as the prioritisation of actions and allocation of resources, continue to be made at a centralised agency and at departmental level and not by the interagency structures set up as part of the national drugs strategy, resulting in the effective exclusion of communities from any meaningful decision-making process.

The Taoiseach's Department should appoint a senior official to the national drugs strategy's national structures to support the role of the Department of Health in ensuring direct accountability of all agencies at national, regional and local level for their active participation in implementing the new national drugs strategy through the agreed mechanism of the partnership interagency structures. Furthermore, the new national drugs strategy recognises the central role of drug and alcohol task forces in co-ordinating the delivery of the strategy at local and regional level. However, in 2018, the additional allocation to each task force is limited to the sum of €10,000 - that is what we had got in the previous announcement - for the entire task force area. This extra funding will go some way in helping but is still not enough for the work they are do on the front line. The task forces must be supported and resourced to carry out this role and to respond effectively to their local needs, whether it be the community drug problems in disadvantaged areas, the growing drug problems in towns outside Dublin or the often hidden drug use in rural areas. Each task force must be given an immediate mandate to develop a three-year action plan that sets out how the national drugs strategy actions will be implemented in its local or regional area through a collective interagency partnership response, and that €10,000 and the extra money must be increased.

I will make three final points. Drug-related intimidation continues to be reported from all parts of the country and is having a particularly damaging and insidious impact on a number of marginalised communities with a concentration of serious problem drug use. The national drugs strategy document states that the NDS structures will develop and monitor responses to drug-related intimidation as a matter of priority. Families are being devastated by this. This commitment must be acted on immediately by bringing together all the relevant stakeholders at the highest level to develop an action plan specific to the challenges of addressing drug-related intimidation.

There is no clear indication as to how an integrated strategy on drugs and alcohol is to be implemented, and this discussion needs to take place on the national committees as a matter of urgency with all the partners engaged.

Finally, the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill, which has been called for desperately by all the task forces and all the community networks, should be passed without further delay.

These are some of the key areas the task forces have raised with me in recent days and they wanted me to raise them here. I hope the Minister of State can respond to some of them.

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