John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 369: To ask the Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs the number of calls to the Dial to stop drug dealing hotline in Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46217/10]

Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Dial to Stop Drug Dealing campaign ran in three phases - across 15 Local and Regional Drugs Task Force areas - in 2008 and 2009. The Southern Regional Drugs Task Force (RDTF), which covers County Cork and County Kerry, ran its campaign in March 2009.

I relaunched the campaign on 6 October last with a two week national promotional campaign, followed by local campaigns at Drugs Task Force level. The Southern RDTF again opted to participate and its campaign ran in late October.

Calls received have been spread right across the country, including areas that that have not run a campaign. Since the phone line opened in September 2008, a total number of 8,607 calls have been made to date to the phone line with 2,462 reports generated to the Gardaí. Of these, 38 reports refer to Kerry from March 2009 to August 2010 and since the relaunch of the campaign, 14 reports have been received up to the end of November.

I believe very strongly in the notion that communities should be empowered and should feel enabled to make a stand in a way that they need never fear will impact negatively on them.

A full evaluation of the current phase of the Dial to Stop Drug Dealing campaign will be carried out on its completion at the end of the year.