Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support tonight's Bill and commend those who moved it. Drug abuse and addiction have greatly increased recently, due in no small part to the use of children to transport, store, and sell drugs. It may come as a shock to people that we must consider, let alone explicitly legislate for, the fact that children of a very young age are directly involved in the supply and sale of drugs. We must also rid ourselves of any notion that drug abuse and drug addiction are issues facing urban areas alone. Sadly, it is widely accepted that drugs and drug abuse are a feature of nearly every town and townland across this State. In my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan, services for treatment of drug addiction, such as the Cavan Drug Awareness, CDA, Trust, are under threat of closure due to their perilous financial situation. Such organisations provide an essential service to people with drug and alcohol addiction issues across counties Cavan and Monaghan, including very young people and those who started on this road when they were children themselves.

Only a few weeks ago, the CDA Trust had still not received funding for the final quarter of this year. This resulted in it operating off a bank overdraft, with the associated high interest costs, which were unnecessary. Two years ago, the new national drugs strategy, Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery - A health-led response to drug and alcohol use in Ireland 2017-2025, called for increased planning and co-operation in this area. However, communities are being excluded from a role in key decision-making, breaking a commitment given by the Government in that same strategy. This is a very serious matter. If the Government expects agencies involved in helping those with substance addiction to plan for the future and co-operate successfully with other related bodies, it must provide for those agencies to function efficiently and effectively and not to be obliged to limp on day by day under the real threat of closure.

In October, I raised the case of Cavan Drug Awareness Trust directly with the Minister of State through a Topical Issue. The Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, told me that €190,000 was to be invested in support services for young people with substance abuse problems in Cavan-Monaghan. While I welcome such a commitment, who is to deliver those addiction services for this overwhelmingly young cohort of people if the threat to the CDA Trust remains? Rather than making vague promises of future funding, the Government should ensure the future of the CDA Trust and its staff, who have the requisite experience and knowledge particular to that region. Otherwise, through what means and to whom would the funding be given?

The national drugs strategy can be delivered successfully through existing structures. First, the Department of the Taoiseach should take responsibility for oversight of the new strategy. Second, the Taoiseach should convene a national forum of all national drugs strategy stakeholders to set out clearly what is expected of them in their roles implementing the strategy in line with the principles therein. Third, a community development plan should be put in place at the core of the national drugs strategy. The bottom line is that the drug and alcohol task forces must be allowed to do as the national drugs strategy promised, which is to co-ordinate an interagency approach to the implementation of the strategy, in the context of the needs of their respective regions and areas.

I can say that not only with regard to the Cavan-Monaghan issue and the CDA Trust's future. It has formally put us all on notice that it will cease operation at the end of the coming year if there is no increase in funding. The North Eastern Drug and Alcohol Task Force, which is the overarching body across the region of Cavan, Monaghan, Louth and Meath, has echoed the CDA position only a short number of weeks ago in the audiovisual room in Leinster House. There is a serious problem here. While I welcome the Minister of State's indication of support for the Bill, it is critically important that this Government takes a real hold of this issue because what I see in my community across my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan is an unravelling of good work done at a community level. There needs to be a realisation of this and an intervention at the highest level to arrest that decline.

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