Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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554. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the amount of funding his Department has allocated to drug addiction prevention initiatives in 2024, and to date in 2025. [68686/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department's mission is to promote rural and community development and to support vibrant, inclusive and sustainable communities throughout Ireland.

The key role of my Department in tackling drug use is in providing funding for supports to be delivered to communities and individuals experiencing poverty, deprivation and marginalization. My Department provides funding across an array of projects and initiatives to enhance inclusion and tackle deprivation across the country. Examples of initiatives to tackle deprivation funded by my Department include the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP), the Community Development Pilot Programme, the Empowering Communities Programme and the North East Inner City Initiative.

CityWide Drugs Crisis Campaign is a national network of community activists and community organisations that are involved in responding to Ireland's drugs crisis. Set up in 1995 by the Inner City Organisations Network (ICON), to bring together Dublin communities that were struggling with the heroin crisis, they now work nationally linking communities across the country dealing with a range of substance issues.

Previously funded by the Department of Health, Citywide have been funded by my Department since 2023. Annual funding for the project is €209,180. 

Citywide’s work takes a strong community development focus, consistent with the Department’s objectives and complimentary to other community initiatives such as SICAP and the Empowering Communities Programme. 

Additionally, my Department officials will continue to assist with the important work of the Department of Health and the successor to the National Drugs Strategy into the future.