Written answers

Thursday, 9 November 2006

Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

National Drugs Strategy

5:00 pm

Photo of Dan BoyleDan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 176: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his views on the claim made by the chief executive of Merchant's Quay Ireland that the national drugs strategy is failing. [37286/06]

Photo of Noel AhernNoel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I would not accept the view that the National Drug Strategy is failing. Indeed, the main finding of the mid-term review of the Strategy was that the current aims and objectives were fundamentally sound and that progress was being made across all pillars of the Strategy. It would seem from newspaper reports that the Chief Executive of Merchants Quay Ireland, speaking at the launch of his organisation's 2005 report, deduced from the heavy demand on the services provided by them that there is a lack of development of local drugs services and an increased need for local needle exchange programmes. He also noted that changing trends and patterns in drug use, specifically relating to cocaine, have impacted on their services.

With respect to local drug services, these have been developed in all Local Drug Task Force areas and are being developed throughout the country. At the end of September 2006, the Central Treatment List indicated that 7,966 people with heroin problems were in receipt of methadone treatment and that the waiting list for treatment services was 156. This latter figure represents a drop of 36% on the number recorded in September 2005. With respect to needle exchanges, an allocation of €3m was made by the Department of Health & Children in 2006 for the further development of Harm Reduction Services. I am informed by the HSE that needle exchange services are provided at a local level in each of the former Eastern Health Board areas and are currently being developed in other areas where there is likely to be a demand. With regard to the emerging trend of cocaine misuse, a joint briefing paper that I requested from the National Advisory Committee on Drugs and the National Drug Strategy Team was received in September. I am currently awaiting responses from the relevant Agencies and Departments as to how the recommendations of the briefing paper might be addressed.

I believe that there are encouraging signs of progress over the past couple of years — be it in the areas of drug seizures, expansion of treatment services, establishment of the Regional Drugs Task Forces, prevention programmes in schools and the very encouraging results of the Research Outcome Study in Ireland (ROSIE), which evaluated heroin treatment effectiveness. I am confident that the momentum built up around the various initiatives in the National Drugs Strategy will see them implemented within the appointed timescale, which runs to the end of 2008.

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