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

Like some of the other Deputies, I want a bit of honesty in the debate. Like Deputy Crowe, for many years I have been involved with community organisations and the local drugs task force. At this stage we must admit the national drugs strategy is failing and not delivering what it should. It will continue to fail unless proper resources are put into it and there is proper engagement by some of the statutory agencies. For far too long on many task forces, certain statutory agencies could not be bothered to take part. The representatives just sit there but will not partake. Sometimes, it is the Department of Education and Skills but it is the HSE in most cases. Unless such parties engage, much of the work that should be done by local drugs task forces will not happen in the holistic manner in which it should.

That is why community and voluntary organisations have all been involved with task forces over the years and it is why I got involved. When I joined, there was a vibrancy or energy in the task forces and people wanted to help and look after their communities. Now a task force meeting is dominated by drudgery and strangled by bureaucracy. The people in the community can see day in and day out what the scourge of drugs is doing to those communities and their families. They understand the issues; if we ask, they will give the details, chapter and verse. The Minister of State knows this. I am not criticising her but rather bureaucracy, the Civil Service and a Government that has continuously failed to properly resource the drugs task forces and a strategy to tackle one of the worst scourges in society. It is not just in working-class communities but it is right across the spectrum. We can see it clearly on the streets of Ballyfermot, Inchicore and the south inner city.

We can also see it when people arrive in taxis dressed in suits who go off to snort cocaine and the like. They are as responsible in this as those who deal the drugs. Without them feeding their habits, the money would not go to the drug gangs that wreak havoc in communities. We saw again last night some of the consequences of that. Unless we get real in tackling the issue properly by putting in the required resources, we will leave another generation in misery. The Minister of State should please see this as the urgent matter that it is.

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