Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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801. To ask the Minister for Health the details of the additional resources applied per centre to reduce waiting lists for preliminary team assessment as per the statement made by him on 28 September 2021 in Dáil Éireann; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48666/21]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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802. To ask the Minister for Health the number of children in CHO8 that received a preliminary team assessment and were referred onward to an intervention pathway and are awaiting appointment for same. [48667/21]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 801 and 802 together.

As these are service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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803. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to a report (details supplied) that found significant difficulties in evaluating public expenditure on the State’s approach to drug and alcohol harm and which found that unlabelled expenditure and productivity costs contribute significantly to the overall economic burden of problem drug and alcohol use; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45595/21]

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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As part of the mid-term review of the national drugs strategy, the Department of Health commissioned the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Services to undertake a focused policy assessment of of expenditure and performance in the area of drug and alcohol misuse. The report undertook an analysis of expenditure on drugs and alcohol across government departments and agencies and made a number of findings and conclusions on the gaps in measuring and assessing expenditure.

The report is the first to estimate unlabelled expenditure on problem drug use, finding that approximately €87m is spent annually dealing with the medical and legal consequences of drug use. Productivity losses associated with drug use are estimated to be in the region of €61m per annum. Using a longitudinal approach to assess the net value of current and future unlabelled expenditure and productivity costs due to drug use, the combined estimates rises to over €650m. 

The report found that labelled expenditure to address drug and alcohol use exceeds €200m per annum. It was not possible to breakdown labelled expenditure by health and criminal justice responses. It was similarly not possible to breakdown expenditure by goal in the national drugs strategy. As such, an assessment of what was achieved for such expenditure was not possible. 

Addressing the limitations of datasets and performance indicators identified in the report are necessary first steps to improve monitoring and evaluation of the national drugs strategy and public expenditure on drug and alcohol programmes more generally. 

I am committed to addressing the the report's conclusions and recommendations. These issues will be addressed under the new structures I am putting in place to implement the strategic priorities 2021-2025 under for the national drugs strategy.