I recently met the St. Monica's Drugs Intervention Team, who briefed me on proposals which they had submitted under the Young People's Facilities and Services Fund, to build a premises in Edenmore from which to run their drug prevention, recovery and intervention programme.
Decisions on the allocation of the £20 million funding under the Young People's Facilities and Services Fund which is being targeted at Drugs Task Force areas, will be made on foot of proposals received from development groups which have been established in those areas to prepare integrated plans on the basis of operational guidelines agreed by the Cabinet Committee on Social Inclusion.
Under these guidelines, the development groups were required, as part of the development process, to identify gaps in services and facilities for young people at risk in the area, engage in as wide a consultation process as possible with local groups and statutory agencies and submit their plan to the local drug task force for their views, before forwarding the final plan to an assessment committee, chaired by my Department. The assessment committee will evaluate the plans and make recommendations to the Cabinet committee regarding the allocation of funding to implement the plans in due course.
The assessment committee can, of course, only consider those proposals which have been included in the integrated plan prepared at local level. I understand the development group in Dublin North East did not include the proposal from St. Monica's Drug Intervention Team in its plan, which was submitted to the assessment committee on 30 September last.
However, on foot of a recommendation in the action plan of the North East Drugs Task Force, the Government has already allocated £151,000 to St. Monica's Community Council — of which the St. Monica's Drug Intervention Team is an affiliate — to allow it to develop a full range of treatment services — including family support, education and prevention programmes, drug misuser support programmes and co-ordination — in conjunction with drug services being developed by the Eastern Health Board in the Edenmore Health Centre.
