Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent)
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1020. To ask the Minister for Health his plans for the community pillar to have a direct input into the national drugs strategy; and his plans for it to have an integral role in the process of developing the future national drugs strategy. [41606/16]

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Government policy on tackling the drug problem is set out in the National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016. The Strategy is a cross cutting area of public policy and service delivery, which requires a coordinated response to tackling the drug problem, involving the statutory, community and voluntary sectors. Accordingly, the community sector is represented on the institutional structures that have been established to support the coordination of the current Strategy.

As the Deputy will be aware, a Steering Committee has been established to advise me on the development of a new National Drugs Strategy from 2017 onwards. The Committee has been mandated to develop an integrated public health approach to substance misuse. The community sector is represented on the Steering Committee, and on each of the four Focus Groups established to advise the Committee on measures to address gaps in the current response to the drug problem.

While the format of the new Strategy has not yet been agreed by the Steering Committee, I very much agree on the importance of maintaining a focus on communities in the new Strategy. The Department is currently developing a performance measurement framework for Drug and Alcohol Task Forces, which should provide a more objective way of targeting funding allocations, having regard to the drugs situation and demographic factors in Task Force areas. This work will feed into the new Strategy and help to ensure that in future resources are directed towards communities facing a higher risk of substance misuse.

I understand that the Steering Committee are continuing their deliberations and I look forward to receiving their final report on the new drugs Strategy in the coming months.