Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 375: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the concerns of many communities affected by the ongoing drugs crisis and their concerns also about their lack of any voice on regional drug task forces; and the way he proposes to address this deficit. [16576/04]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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This Government is committed to tackling the problem of drug misuse and will continue to do so. This is evidenced through the continued implementation of the 100 actions in the national drugs strategy and the substantial funding that has been made available over the past few years to support the work of the local drugs task forces and the young people's facilities and services fund.

Under the national drugs strategy, ten regional drugs task forces have been established throughout the country. These represent a team-based response to illicit drug use. Each task force is chaired by an independent chairperson and is made up of representatives from State agencies working in the region, the community and voluntary sectors and elected public representatives. All the regional task forces work in partnership — in a manner similar to the local drugs task forces.

I am not aware of any concerns expressed by communities about the lack of a voice on the regional task forces. The guidelines for the operation of the regional task forces provide that the community sector can nominate up to six members to each task force. In addition, my Department provided funding for training for regional task force community representatives in 2003. The aim of the training was to support the representative in fulfilling their roles on the task forces and to facilitate discussion on key issues emerging. Further training is planned for 2004.