Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was aware of the Minister's announcement last week of funding for several local drug and alcohol task forces. I raise this because the current funding runs out in July, which is in the middle of the summer. This urgently needs to be presented to the Minister of State and to those who are engaging with the Donore community drug and alcohol team. They must look properly at the previous pilot, the evaluation of that pilot and the work that has been done on a shoestring budget since then. If that does not happen, the community and the Donore community drug and alcohol team are afraid that some of the individuals the team has managed to identify in its outreach work will revert to type without intervention. The intervention is not always based on age. Sometimes people are slightly older than these youth workers would normally deal with. It is not based on vicinity. If some of the characters the team deals with move out of the vicinity, the team tracks them and tries to keep them engaged. It attempts to ensure that their behaviours and challenges are addressed and tries to guide them towards a more positive role. The team has been successful despite the fact that some questioned this initiative when it was first introduced. Those of us who were sceptical in the first place have been proved wrong, which is a great thing. That is why I champion it. In its own small way, it has managed to address some of the major anti-social behaviour problems in the vicinity. It is not a panacea for all the problems, but this is a regeneration area. Plans for houses have just gone ahead. We do not want this behaviour to reappear in the future.

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