Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

I appreciate the answer but the Minister of State knows as well as I do that it does not actually answer any of the points that I raised. I am hoping that in her two-minute supplementary response the Minister of State will address these issues. I appreciate that she gave the answer she was provided with but this is causing real concern for task forces across the country. I will repeat the basic points I made in my initial contribution. First, there is a cut to core funding of the task forces because no funding is being provided for auto-enrolment. Will the Minister of State clarify if any extra funding is going to be provided to meet the 1.5% increase in costs in the first year? Second, I asked about an additional ongoing funding uplift for the projects to cover the cost of living. Third, I asked about DRIVE, an important national project which was being rolled out across the country but appears to have disappeared in terms of funding. There is still a website talking about how good it is and there is a press release about it but currently, as far as I can tell, there is no funding provided for it.

In addition, I ask the Minister of State to address the exclusion of the local drugs and alcohol task forces from the reference group to support the implementation of the new national drugs strategy. She said that they are an integral part of the delivery of this, but it does not look like they are an integral part when they are not being included in it. I look forward to answers to those questions. I repeat the point that it certainly looks to me, and I think to many other people on the ground, that there is a slow strangulation of these task forces, which are providing vital services on the front line. Applications can be made for things like the community services enhancement fund, but that is not a substitute to core funding. That is what we hear from the task forces all the time. It is not a substitute because they cannot make long-term plans on the basis that they apply for this grant now. They need to be able to have permanent staff and be able to provide a future for people. They need to be able to pay for their pensions, so the key thing is core funding.

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