Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I ask that we have statements on the operation and value of local drug and alcohol task forces when we come back after the recess. I appreciate that there is no time between now and the end of this session to deal with the matter. These task forces have been operating since the 1990s. They make an exceptional contribution to our communities, but since the economic crash, they have not seen any increase in their core funding. It is not as if the Government is not giving any money to them. It is, but, unfortunately, we tend to give the money for piecemeal work such as, for example, that relating to the response to crack cocaine. Core funding is about looking after the community by putting in place people who have experience and professional qualifications in this area and who are dedicated to carrying out alcohol and drug addiction prevention and supporting those who are addicted and those who are in recovery from addiction. They do an exceptional job on the ground. It is my honour to be the chair of the Dublin 12 drug and alcohol task force. At meeting after meeting in recent years, I have received feedback on all that is done. At a recent conference in the Department of Health with the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, the research unit brought forward research which showed that the taking of and access to drugs are the same across all communities but that the effect of drug taking is felt most in communities that experience high social deprivation.

The chairs of the drug and alcohol task forces are giving a presentation in Buswell's Hotel this morning. They are launching their pre-budget submission, which asks for an additional €3 million. The latter is an incredibly modest amount of money for the extraordinary amount of work they are doing. They are modest because they are trying to be real and get the money rather than putting a value on their work and looking for considerable multiples of the amount to which I refer, which they would deserve and would spend extremely well. They are over in Buswells giving their presentation. Many of the chairs of the task forces, including me, have been over there meeting with public representatives. They talk about the amount of work they do, but we need to target areas. There are areas in our city that are blighted by drugs. There is intergenerational trauma whereby parents and grandparents were the victims of targeting by crime gangs in the 1980s. Those gangs are long since gone. The children grow up with the trauma of having parents in addiction and recovering from drug addiction or even of having deaths in the family as a result of drug addiction and overdoses.It is really important that they are successful in their pre-budget claim. I ask all of us to represent that in our parliamentary parties, to ensure we are representing it well and honouring this €3 million. Within the Department of Health, they do so much and this can get lost but it is vital to our communities and it is important that we do it.