Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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A total of nearly €20m was allocated to the 14 Local Drugs Task Forces (LDTFs) this year through my Department. This includes allocations under the Emerging Needs Fund and a sum for cross-Task Force initiatives. The allocations were as follows:

The bulk of the money disbursed by my Department for LDTF projects is channelled through a number of statutory bodies, including Departments, Agencies and Local Authorities. These bodies act as "channels of funding" for the various projects, depending on the nature of the work being undertaken, and they direct the funding as approved by my Department to the individual projects.

The "channels of funding" are aware of their obligations in relation to public financial procedures and, indeed, personnel in my Department remind them of these responsibilities periodically. Payments to the statutory bodies are made on receipt of applications outlining the funding required on a project basis. It is usual for payments to be made on a staged basis, with at least two payments per year. Individual projects are financially accountable to the State Agency through which its funding is channelled.

In this context, the Deputy should also note that the Local Drugs Task Forces Handbook sets out the responsibilities of the various parties involved. In particular, the Handbook outlines the responsibility of:

The Task Forces to oversee and monitor the implementation of approved projects; and

The project promoter to satisfy the LDTF that appropriate management and personnel arrangements are in place and that they comply with the processes of the State Agency through which funding is being channelled.

The representatives of the statutory bodies on each LDTF also have a responsibility to monitor the situation in relation to projects being funded through their Departments or Agencies and to ensure that any emerging problems are highlighted at LDTF level. The capacity of the LDTFs to provide supports to projects has been greatly enhanced since the approval of a package of operational supports (administrative and development workers) for each Task Force in 2005. Finally, the Deputy should note that the National Drugs Strategy Team has responsibility for overseeing and monitoring the ongoing work of the LDTFs and it provides regular updates to the Interdepartmental Group on Drugs, which I chair.