Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 16 Apr 1997

Vol. 477 No. 6

Ceisteanna — Questions. - Ministerial Task Force on Drugs.

Bertie Ahern

Question:

2 Mr. B. Ahern asked the Taoiseach when the second report of the Ministerial Task Force on Drugs will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9738/97]

Since the publication of our first report last October, the ministerial task force has been overseeing the implementation of the strategies recommended in that report. As the Deputy will be aware, a Cabinet drugs committee and a National Drugs Strategy Team have been established at national level, while local drugs task forces have been established and are working in Dublin and North Cork city.

We expect the task forces to submit their anti-drugs development strategies in the coming weeks. The Government set aside £10 million of the £14 million allocated in the current year to support the non-mainstream elements of these strategies. In our second report, we hope to give full details of the steps taken and the progress achieved to date in implementing all the strategies developed in our first report.

This work has proceeded in conjunction with a concentration on other aspects of the drugs problem with which we will deal in our second report. These relate to the nationwide misuse of non-opiate drugs, such as ecstasy and cannabis, drug abuse in our prisons and the treatment of prisoners who misuse drugs and the role of therapeutic communities in the treatment and rehabilitation of drug misusers.

I hope that this second report will be finalised within the next few weeks and will then be submitted to Government, prior to publication.

The sooner the second report is published the better. Is the allocation of the £10 million proceeding according to plan or are the Minister of State and his officials waiting for the development plans from the various groups before allocating money? Will he update me on what he said on 19 February regarding the level of consultation with the various communities? Have all the difficulties been resolved with the Ballymun, Crumlin and the other groups involved?

The allocation of the money is proceeding as planned. The moneys designated will be disbursed to the local drugs task forces in terms of the plans they submit. It would not be proper to allocate any money until the local drugs task forces submit their plans to the National Drugs Strategy Team. We expect them to do that by the end of the month. The £3 million of the £14 million allocated for the purposes of improving estates has virtually all been allocated. Local task forces have been working on the preparation of a comprehensive plan for their immediate areas and the moneys will be allocated as soon as the plans have been submitted.

I am pleased to report that the difficulties in regard to Ballymun and Crumlin have been ironed out. In virtually all cases the task forces are working satisfactorily. This may be a suitable opportunity for me to take back some of the harsh things I said earlier about the length of time it took the community and voluntary sector to decide who should represent them on the task forces. They have done that without exception, and work is progressing well.

Will the Minister of State use his good offices as co-ordinator to deal with the ongoing drugs problem? From his knowledge of the city, I am sure he is aware that success in some areas has forced the problem into other areas. For example, people around the city can be given a fixed time at which to purchase drugs, in two locations, in particular. While I accept this is not the responsibility of the Minister of State, will he use his co-ordinating role to resolve this problem? People are being allowed to openly flout the law I do not want to have to name the areas concerned, but I have reported them to the authorities. Those communities will not be able to put forward a coherent plan to benefit from the allocation of funds. Action should be taken before the summer to deal with this problem. I will submit the names of the two areas involved if the Minister wishes.

It is true that action taken by local community groups to protect their areas, as well as more effective policing, has caused the problem to move to other areas. As Deputy Ahern suggested, it is true there is a problem of displacement in a small number of areas in this city, which we have been seeking to address. The Cabinet sub-committee has had a formal meeting with the Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner for Dublin at which this and other aspects of the problem were discussed. We have also had several informal contacts. According to the statistical information available the problem has been very bad and concentrated in certain areas. Because those areas are targeted for additional resources and so on, it does not mean that the Eastern Health Board is going out of business. It is continuing to do its job and has greatly developed and enhanced its infrastructure to deal with this problem over the past few years.

Because the 11 areas selected are the focus of attention in the sense of local drugs task forces and the focus of more resources, it does not mean that the Eastern Health Board, which is familiar with the problem to which Deputy Ahern referred, is not concentrating on those other areas. Significant additional resources have been made available in the past few years to the Eastern Health Board. I hope the phenomenon to which Deputy Ahern pointed can be dealt with. This is a very difficult problem. Because there is some improvement in the worst afflicted areas it does not mean that the problem, to borrow a phrase, has gone away. Those who have been pushing death in the form of drugs in certain communities in Dublin are still peddling their menacing trade and we are trying to reduce the demand for drugs.

I acknowledge what the Minister said. I am fearful that people are bringing drugs into a small number of areas. As the drugs trade in those areas is well-organised, well-structured and sophisticated, all the big players have moved into those areas. If that trade is not broken, it will be very difficult to tackle the drugs problem in those areas. Other institutions of the State as well as the Eastern Health Board must engage in addressing this problem. The Eastern Health Board will find it impossible to operate in those areas. The Minister of State has obviously talked to the Garda. It is hard for law abiding citizens to watch the operation of this trade outside their windows and in their locality night after night. Though tactics are required to deal with it and should be adopted. Notebooks will not solve the problem.

I note what Deputy Ahern said and I agree with him.

Top
Share