Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 73: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his views on recent reports in respect of disagreements at a community level regarding the future structure of the national substance misuse strategy; when the new strategy will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16661/09]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 79: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will reverse the decision to dissolve the national drugs strategy team and to let its staff go at the end of April 2009 in view of the fact that the dissolution at this time risks disruption to 24 drug task forces and more than 600 projects and particularly in view of the Taoiseach's elimination of the post of Minister of State at his Department with responsibility for the national drugs strategy. [16684/09]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 80: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the implications of the Taoiseach's elimination of the post of Minister of State at his Department with responsibility for the national drugs strategy and for the draft plan to introduce a super-junior ministerial office with responsibility for the strategy based on the model of the Office of the Minister for Children. [16683/09]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 73, 79 and 80 together.

I have been re-appointed as a Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, with responsibility for the national drugs strategy, community affairs and with special responsibility for integration policy. I can assure the Deputies that the change in responsibilities will have no implications for the level of commitment I will bring to tackling problem drug use in Ireland, nor indeed, that of the Government.

Work on developing a national drugs strategy is well advanced at this stage and the steering group, which is developing proposals in this regard, will be presenting me with their findings in the coming weeks. I expect to be presenting the draft strategy to Government for consideration in late May or early June. The measure, as approved by Government, will be published as an interim strategy pending the drafting and finalisation of a national substance misuse strategy. In this context, the Deputies should note that a new steering group will be established in the autumn to develop proposals for the overall substance misuse strategy, which will incorporate the already agreed drugs policy element. The group will be asked to report by the end of 2010.

As part of the restructuring proposed in the new drugs strategy, the national drugs strategy team, NDST, will be discontinued from 30 April. It is intended that proposals for the establishment of a new dedicated ministerial drugs office will be submitted to Government for consideration in the context of the new drugs strategy. In the interim, the general functions of the NDST will be absorbed appropriately within my Department.

In this regard, I would like to pay tribute to the members and staff in the NDST for their contribution over the years in tackling problem drug use in our society. It is intended that the new office will build upon a partnership approach across the statutory and community and voluntary sectors while facilitating improved governance, management and overall effectiveness.

To facilitate a smooth transfer of functions to the new office, the Deputies should note that transitional arrangements have been drawn up by my Department and are currently being rolled out. These cover a broad range of issues, including financial and day-to-day administrative issues in support of the work of the drugs task forces and local projects. While they do not endorse the recommendation to establish the dedicated ministerial office, the issues of concern to the community sector representatives on the steering group, who left the process in March, have since been largely addressed and they returned to the steering group process last week.

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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It is good news that we are finally to get a look at this wonderful document. Unfortunately, however, the drugs problem is worse that it has ever been. One only has to look at the events at the weekend in Dolphin House in my area where there was a major incident involving thugs running rampant, vandalising more than 30 cars with paint and acid and terrifying people. People at a public meeting the other evening had to be removed from the area because of the threat from a device left there. It is about time that this new strategy was put in place. There are major problems with drug abuse.

Will the Minister of State confirm that he will rename the national drugs strategy the national substance misuse strategy and give equal attention and importance to tackling alcohol abuse? Will the Minister of State explain how this strategy will be managed and if the national drugs strategy team will remain? Who will manage the funding allocated to task forces which are in place to help communities tackle the drugs problems on their doorsteps?

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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The delay in publishing the strategy was due to the fact that during the consultation process, much interest was raised in the area of alcohol and the relationship between alcohol and drugs. In that regard, the Government recently made a decision that alcohol would be included in a joint strategy. However, the reality was that much work had been done towards the preparation of a current strategy. As I said, the current drugs strategy will go to Government in late May or early June.

In the autumn of this year, a new steering group will work to incorporate alcohol into what will be a substance misuse strategy but that will not be available until some time next year. There will be two steps to this.

I welcome the Government's decision to include alcohol which was strongly put forward during the consultation process. I said the contracts with the NDST will terminate on 30 April and the funding, to which the Deputy referred, will be managed by the Department.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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What is the alternative mechanism to carry out the work of the national drugs strategy team? Is there any logic to terminating the national drugs strategy team without the alternative being in place beforehand? The Minister of State mentioned transitional arrangements. Is there any logic to terminating or fixing something which is not broken?

Perhaps the Minister of State will have to ask the Taoiseach but is there any logic to downgrading his office? He is committed to tackling the drugs issue but giving him extra duties reduces the Government commitment.

Will the Minister of State give a commitment that when the full drugs strategy, including alcohol, is produced, there will be no reduction in the overall spend on tackling drugs and alcohol abuse?

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for the questions. I refer to the last question on spending, an area which causes grave concern. It is very difficult to quantify the spend at any point in time because a partnership approach is taken. We can target the funding in respect of the community and voluntary sectors, so we know what we spend. However, it is not possible to do so in respect of the statutory agencies, including the Garda and the HSE. The intention is to continue the partnership approach. The statutory agencies have given a commitment in respect of the level of funding they will provide in the current year.

The Deputy asked why we are moving to a new structure. It became apparent that if we were to avoid duplication and take cognisance of concerns raised at the Committee of Public Accounts, the structures in place would not address them. There was much duplication between the NDST and the drugs strategy unit. The intention is to merge the functions of those.

The community sector had concerns about the new structure but it is fundamental that it is fully engaged with it, which I expect it to be. However, this is to avoid that duplication, to address concerns raised at the Committee of Public Accounts and to bring in overall efficiencies where people can be accountable and where we can have better governance, management and clear lines of communication from the projects in the communities, of which more than 600 are being supported, right through to the task forces and all the way up.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Why terminate them now without the new ones being in place? Why have transitional arrangements? It is usual to transfer from one to another and not to have a transitional period. That is what has caused major concern.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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The transitional arrangements come into place because a Government decision on the strategy has not been adopted. The contracts with the NDST will be terminated on 30 April.

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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I refer to the addition of alcohol to the overall scheme. Will the submissions made form the basis of that or will a new process be undertaken? Where stands the Licensed Vintners Association, which seems to be under so much pressure? Will it have representatives on the group which will review this? Now that we recognise this is a huge problem, what will we be able to do to offer assistance to young people in schools, in particular, in regard to the dangers of alcohol?

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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During the public consultation process, it became very apparent there was much synergy between alcohol and drugs, particularly among young people and in respect of education, prevention and so on. However, we were fairly far advanced with the drugs strategy, which will be adopted as is without the inclusion of alcohol at this point.

One of the specific actions is that in September of this year, a steering group will be formed to bring the decision the Government made recently in respect of alcohol into a substance misuse strategy. It has approximately 12 months to do that.

The Deputy asked about the make-up of the steering group but that has not yet been decided. The idea is not to park the drugs strategy and wait. We did not set out to make that decision. The consultation process led us in that direction. It is important that if we are to engage in consultation, that we respond to what it throws up. We had not expected it to turn out like this but in light of what we have done, we have decided to go ahead with the drugs strategy.

The Deputy mentioned the Licensed Vintners Association. There are many similarities between alcohol and drugs but alcohol is not an illegal substance. We need to be conscious of that and deal with it. Many people, myself included, use alcohol and most use it sensibly. However, we need to make that very clear distinction and that is what this consultation process will be about.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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There have been reports of threats of resignations in the task forces over proposals in the new strategy. Is that true? What meetings has the Minister of State had with these groups? Have any outstanding issues been resolved?

I am glad alcohol has been included because I have been pushing for that for many years. People in this country have a tolerance towards drink. We do not seem to want to say we have a problem in regard to the abuse of alcohol. It is the most disastrous drug in the country and it creates more problems for families and homes than any other drug. It might be legal but by God it has created many problems in homes and I am glad it will be included in the new strategy.

I hope the tolerance we have for the abuse of alcohol will diminish and it will be like drink driving. I told the Minister of State I would support the strategy if alcohol was included in it, otherwise I would not.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Ring for his support. In regard to threats of resignations in community groups or task forces, nobody has brought that to my attention. During the deliberation process of formulating the new strategy, the community group representatives walked away from the steering committee. I met them and they had a number of specific concerns which we addressed. They are now back in the steering group and are engaging fully with it. They had a different view in regard to the establishment of an office for a minister of drugs or whatever.

We must bear in mind that to tackle the drugs issue, the community and voluntary sectors and all the statutory agencies must take a partnership approach. They recognise that there must be a compromise on the views of all concerned. I am very pleased the community sector has re-engaged with the deliberation process.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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What is the situation in regard to funding for the strategy? The Minister of State mentioned funding from different agencies but they are feeling the pressure at the moment. Has funding from his Department for the strategy been altered in any way?

Does the Minister of State agree with a statement a community worker made to me the other night that drug use tends to go up in times of recession? Has he any thoughts on that or plans in that eventuality?

I refer to the rise in heroin use, particularly in rural areas. There was a time when it was confined to Dublin but we now find heroin used all over the country. Has the Minister of State taken account of that? What plans has he to deal with that matter? There are ten community drugs projects in the Cork and Kerry region. Does the Minister of State have any plans to develop further projects in other towns and areas? Can he guarantee that the projects will not be affected by cutbacks?

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy asked an interesting question about the possibility of an increase in drug use during the recession. All I can say is that it depends on the evidence one examines. The pattern of drug use often changes as economic conditions change. The use of cocaine in affluent areas increased during the economic boom. During a recession, there is often an increase in heroin use in disadvantaged areas. I wish to compare the current strategy to the original strategy. The original strategy was primarily based in disadvantaged parts of the country that are associated with high levels of heroin use, whereas the current strategy recognises that we are dealing with a national problem.

Deputy Stanton also spoke about funding. As a result of the recent supplementary budget, the amount of money that is available through the task forces this year will probably be a little lower than the amount of money that was available last year. We are currently preparing figures in advance of advising the task forces on the funds that will be made available to them for the second six months of the year. The Deputy pointed out that there are ten programmes in his local area. As I do not have details on them to hand, I will make a general comment. The strategy supports approximately 600 projects throughout the country. They are funded from my Department through the various task forces. I cannot guarantee that they will all remain as they are at present. It is very important that they are evaluated on an ongoing basis to make sure they are performing and delivering the programmes that are needed in communities. I have some concerns about this area. If we are spending money on a project that is not delivering in an area, some other opportunity is being lost. In the current economic climate, everybody has to work a bit harder for the scarce resources that are available.