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

Every day we hear stories of individuals, families and communities throughout the country that have been devastated by drugs. Drug-related harm consistently clusters in communities marked by poverty and social inequality and it is in this context that Fianna Fáil will support the motion presented by Independents 4 Change and Deputy Joan Collins. We will also move a number of amendments but they are in no way meant to detract from the substance of the motion. Rather, they arise specifically from a briefing meeting held by Deputy Joan Collins with CityWide and will be tabled in that context. I hope the proposers of the motion will accept the amendments, as they address the need to restore an annual increase in core funding to drug task forces and ensure that the debate in the Chamber is continued at the Committee on Health, which is important.

In all of my discussions, I stress that the national drugs strategy, which the Minister of State developed, leads and oversees, receives widespread public support from the community and voluntary sector and the statutory players. That is important because, as the Minister of State well knows, Governments and Ministers come and go but the strategy will span a number of Governments and it is important that there is widespread support, which there is. The purpose of the debate on the motion, however, is substantially to examine the implementation of the strategy.

The point was made earlier but I reiterate that the programme for Government, which is almost three years old, commits to expanding the projects supported by local drug task forces. There has been no increase in core funding in the past five years. While the funding partners, namely, the HSE and the Department of Health, have received significant increases to their budgets, the funding for each individual drug task force has remained static. Every other cost has risen and, therefore, in real terms and purchasing power, it has resulted a stealth cut in funding which the task forces can feel. Some Deputies are members of task forces, as the Minister of State will be aware, and they can accurately relay to her the impact on them. We must not only address the issue of emerging needs but also annually increase core funding to support existing projects to ensure the long-term viability and sustainability of the programmes.

I acknowledge that the Minister of State announced €1 million in additional funding yesterday. I questioned her in the House before and she indicated clearly that there would be additional funding. She did not say how much until now and I welcome the funding. She said there would be discussion with the task forces. A substantial amount of money must be found annually to maintain existing core services and funding to task forces before we move to additional funding. In her discussions, the Minister of State needs to set aside a proportion of that funding to support core funding to task forces. If the entire €1 million were just given to support additional funding to core task forces, there would be an increase per task force of 3.5%. It is nothing excessive and people should not get carried away. A sum of €1 million sounds like a lot but we have to look at the projects supported.

I acknowledge that there was funding for one-off projects last year. One-off projects are not the same as the long-term viability of the projects underpinned by the task forces. One element that CityWide has identified and expressed concern about is the input, commitment and support of some of the statutory players in the bodies. We often hear that they may or may not attend various task force meetings and such. I did a small exercise and asked a number of parliamentary questions about attendance. It would not be fair to pick one Department over another so I will not name the Department. One Department sat on one local and three regional task forces and attended only half the meetings. That supports the claim made by CityWide and the community sector that the statutory players often do not attend. It is important that we address this.

Some of the previous speakers raised the issue of decriminalisation. It is sad to say that, as we debate this, we know that there are approximately 700 drug related deaths per annum. More than four times as many people will die from a drug related death than will die on the roads this year. The numbers are staggering and we have the opportunity to make a difference and do things differently. Decriminalisation is not legalisation. It is not a get out of jail card. Decriminalisation will only work if the other supports are in place at that time. The focus is on diverting people from the criminal justice system to health, educational and other supports. The model we use is how they did it in Portugal, which has the population of more than double that of our country. More than 220 people died of a drug overdose in Ireland in the last year while in Portugal, with a population twice ours, the number is 27. There are significant inroads and gains to be made but decriminalisation on its own, without health and educational supports being in place, is not sufficient.

I know the Minister of State has tabled an amendment but I acknowledge that she has said she will attend the Oireachtas committee. We do not get adequate time in the House to delve into the details of the implementation of the strategy. I welcome the Minister of State's commitment to attend the committee because I believe we can tease out some of these points in further detail.

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