Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am aware that some drugs task forces, which do not sit fully in our Department, have vacancies in the community seats. It is vitally important that the community perspective is represented on the drugs task forces. The community side is particularly important because community engagement can play a huge preventative role in stopping people from falling in the wrong direction. It also plays a big role in recovery and offering people pathways out of the situation they are in. We have supported a couple of projects on a pilot basis. The pilot street outreach workers in Killinarden have been extremely effective. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, met them a couple of months ago. They have intervened at a street level and an individual level. We are not taking all that on. We are just doing that via SICAP to show what can be done and good practice too. I will say a little more about the task force in my second supplementary answer.

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