John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, for attending. Both Deputy Crowe and I were asked to raise this issue by Tallaght Drug & Alcohol Task Force. The Minister of State will be aware that considerable resources, although not all that were promised, have been channelled into Dublin's north inner city, a project championed by the former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny. As Fianna Fáil's Dublin spokesperson, I welcomed this initiative. What I disliked about it, however, was how the Government isolated its approach to supporting vulnerable communities to Dublin's north inner city. As the Minister of State knows, the most disadvantaged communities in Ireland, in spite of what Rural Independent Deputies might claim, remain in the capital city.

The cuts in recent years have had a huge impact on the provision of front-line support in the areas most affected by problem drug and alcohol use. I represent one such area, Tallaght. The role of Tallaght Drug & Alcohol Task Force in providing supports through projects and initiatives is essential. The effects of the cuts are not limited to, but have involved, the full removal of services in some cases; reductions in opening times of essential services; reduced staffing, with a resultant reduction in the quality of services; and pauses to pay increments for staff. The staff have endured these pauses since 2008. With the recent public pay restoration, projects are now experiencing a loss of essential staff to public bodies where pay and conditions are now far better than in our projects. There are rising costs in other areas, including insurance, and these issues must also be raised. An increase in drug-related deaths and suicides has been documented. The task forces lack the resources to deal with this. We are into December but there is still no allocation confirmed for task forces in the budget for 2018. If it were any other business, the staff would be put on protective notice at this stage.

Compliance visits were carried out in January of this year but the task force is still awaiting the report ten months later. These are just a few issues that I am able to raise in my two minutes. Deputy Crowe will address more.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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We want to talk about the task force. It might surprise some of the Minister of State's Cabinet colleagues but it should not surprise him that, in parts of my constituency, there is open drug dealing. There is an increase in the number of drug deaths and the rate of intimidation. Families are being intimidated in the area. There are children acting as drug runners and they are destroying the hope and potential of a whole generation. There are people fleeing their homes and becoming homeless because of intimidation. It probably would not surprise the Minister of State that I am aware of eight-year-olds presenting at services with an addiction problem. I am not referring to an alcohol addiction but to an addiction to cocaine or another such substance. That is the background.

If the Minister of State went to my constituency, he would see that there are posters up referring to Crimestoppers. The organisation encourages people to telephone in if they see drug dealing in the area. The campaign has been successful. The Garda is saying it has already had some successes with it but the difficulty is that, with the posters going up, people's expectations rise. The Garda tells me it does not have the resources to follow up on many of the reports of open drug dealing.

There is currently no superintendent. There are two uniformed inspectors and one plain-clothes inspector. There used to be five. We are short of nine sergeants. We have a reduced drug squad and a reduced number of gardaí in the area. Robbed cars can be seen in the constituency again. We believed this was a thing of the past.

With regard to the drugs task force, who is sitting at the table?

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I will be taking this matter on behalf of Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne. I thank Deputies Lahart and Crowe for raising the important issue of funding and governance requirements in regard to the Tallaght Drug & Alcohol Task Force.

Local and regional drug and alcohol task forces play an important role in the development of drugs initiatives at local level to provide a targeted response to the problem of substance misuse in local communities. I can assure the Deputies that every effort has been made to protect the budgets of drug and alcohol task forces in recent years. The overall allocation to local drug and alcohol task forces for community-based drugs initiatives from the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive in 2017 was €27.65 million. The Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, is committed to ensuring that funding at this level is maintained in 2018 and to providing new opportunities for task forces to contribute to tackling the drug problem in the years ahead.

In July this year, the Taoiseach, together with the Minister of State, launched Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery: A health-led response to drug and alcohol use in Ireland. This document sets out the Government's strategy to address the harm caused by substance misuse in our society up to 2025. The vision of the strategy is to create a healthier and safer Ireland. In recent days we have all heard about the horrific killings. The country is not a safe place to be for many involved or indirectly involved, or people being abused owing to the drugs issue. Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery emphasises a health-led response to drug and alcohol use in Ireland that is based on providing safe person-centred services that promote rehabilitation and recovery.

A key element of the strategy is the introduction of a performance-measurement system for drug and alcohol task forces. The aim of the system is to help the Government assess whether drugs initiatives, including measures developed by task forces, are leading to an improvement in problem substance use across the country. The system also incorporates a resource allocation model to enable funding to be allocated on a more equitable and rational basis that takes account of underlying need in areas covered by the task forces and targets those communities that face a higher risk of substance misuse.

The Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, is well aware that a significant amount of work needs to be done in consultation with relevant stakeholders and sectors, including the task forces, to bring the performance measurement system into operation. Building the capacity of task forces to participate in the performance measurement system will be a key factor in the overall success of the framework.

Supporting task forces to operate in accordance with good governance will be an important part of the process. In order to start the process, the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, intends to announce details of a range of new funding initiatives early in the new year to strengthen the capacity of task forces to support the implementation of Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery during 2018.

On behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, I acknowledge the important role played by task forces, including the one in Tallaght, in providing a targeted response to the problem of substance misuse in local communities. Working with task forces through the structures of the new strategy to strengthen the inter-agency model has been a key factor in the success of Government policy in this area to date.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The response was banal and irrelevant. When the funding is eventually received - it has not been received - the HSE has the final say over where the funding is allocated. There is no level of communication apparent and that irks the task forces because the HSE personnel are not the ones on the front line and they do not have the insight into where the gaps and duplications are. Requests are sent regularly to the HSE and it does not respond. I mentioned the compliance visits that were carried out last January but there is still no report. The HSE's relationship with the task forces must change dramatically from what I would regard as a paternalistic, hierarchical one to one of partnership with projects at the coalface, and other stakeholders such as local authorities and, critically, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

There are huge compliance and governance requirements and responsibilities for board members and chairs with no resources or additional supports. How does the Minister propose to combine governance requirements with volunteer availability and time? Consistent, regular and continuous attendance at task force meetings would be a requirement. There is a real need for a co-ordinating leader to pull together all the strands that are needed to support users, local communities, families and projects themselves. Nothing is being done to address the continuing spate of suicides in west Tallaght and north Clondalkin. Could the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, ask what plans the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, has to provide the essential connectivity that is required to make the drugs and alcohol strategy effective?

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I do not know if the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, is embarrassed reading such a reply. For example, he stated "every effort has been made to protect the budgets of drug and alcohol task forces in recent years." We know for a fact that they have been gutted, in some cases by 20% or 30%. There is talk of reinstating the funding for drug task forces but what is needed is an increase in funding. As the Minister of State said, the problem is getting worse. If we are serious about tackling the drug problem the pillars must be in place. Let us examine who is sitting around the table. More often than not the Garda is not present. The HSE has not been present at the past two meetings and it has been said it might not be there in the future. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is not present and neither is the Department of Education and Skills. The people involved in all those key elements in terms of policy to tackle drugs are not sitting around the table with the community. Those in the community ask what will be done. We do not have confidence in the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne. The problem is getting worse and we do not see anyone trying to come up with new ideas or trying to support communities that are trying to combat the drug problem in their area. The situation is getting worse not better and that is due to the Government.

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I value and acknowledge the work of the task force and I accept the point that more needs to be done. However, Deputies Crowe and Lahart must accept that in 2018 we intend to spend €27.65 million so it is wrong to say nothing is being done. When one breaks down the funding it is apparent that €24,250 was allocated to Fettercairn estate management-----

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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That used to be a full-time job.

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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A total of €24,250 was allocated to the Killinarden community safety forum.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is not just about the money.

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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A total of €5,416 was allocated to St. Dominic's community response. The sum of €37,775 was received by Brookfield addiction support programme. Swan family support received €43,951. Barnardos Rivendell project was allocated €233,596. Those are examples of actions that are happening on the ground. I accept the point the Deputies made but we also have a broader societal issue as well in relation to drugs. Another aspect is that one must deal with the health addiction aspect, which I fully support, but there is also the criminal aspect where people are being slaughtered on the streets. That is a security aspect. There are two dimensions involved. We need to develop the national drugs strategy and to ensure the health promotion sector provides services for people on the ground. The Government intends to do that. I will bring the major concerns of the Deputies back to the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, because I accept there is a problem in relation to tackling the issue overall.