Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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1137. To ask the Minister for Health the amount of the additional €6 million announced in budget 2022 for the drugs strategy that will go to the local and regional drug and alcohol task forces drug projects. [53359/21]

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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In Budget 2022, an additional €6m was provided for new measures to support the implementation of the national drugs strategy, 'Reducing Harm Supporting Recovery'. This funding will be used to strengthen the health-led approach to drug and alcohol use and to support the strategic priorities for 2021-2025 identified in the mid-term review of the national drugs strategy (to be published shortly).

The Department of Health has published a factsheet on new funding provided for in Budget 2022 which can be found at www.gov.ie/en/publication/001fc-budget-2022-factsheet/.

The additional funding includes €0.5m to increase access to and provision of community-based drug and alcohol services for women, ethnic minorities and LGBTI+. The funding will address the barriers than women and minority groups can face in accessing services. The lived experience of people who use drugs will be central to the design and delivery of the new services, as will the network of drug and alcohol task forces.

Details of the new measures and the associated outputs will be set out in the HSE national service plan for 2022.

I am committed to working with drug and alcohol task forces to increase access to and provision of drug and alcohol services in the community.