Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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762. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to deal with the escalating levels of drug addiction in Dublin and particularly in the city centre; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33830/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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An objective of the National Drugs Strategy 2009-16 is to develop a national treatment and rehabilitation service that provides drug free and harm reduction approaches for problem substance users and to encourage problem substance users to engage with, and avail of, such services.

To this end the HSE provides a variety of drug treatment interventions to meet the needs of individual drug users. These include interventions to reduce drug-related harm such as needle exchange provision, together with evidence-based treatment options such as opioid substitution, counselling and community and residential rehabilitation initiatives.

As the issues raised by the Deputy are service matters they have been referred to the Health Services Executive for direct reply.