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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 4 Apr 2001

Vol. 534 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Local Drugs Task Forces.

Mr. Coveney

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter and also the Minister for State for coming in to the House to reply.

The national drugs strategy review is likely to be published in the next few weeks outlining future plans and investment in the fight against drug use and addiction in the capital and throughout the country. Cork was the only area outside Dublin included in the original national drugs strategy and there have been many positive results.

An expansion of the current strategy and local drugs task forces is required. I am glad that this is happening in Cork city centre with new projects on both the north side and south side being incorporated in the Minister of State's new plans. He visited Cork recently to launch the Cork local drugs task force action plan, phase 1, which allocates more than £700,000 to fund 16 projects in the city centre. This is welcome news for which I thank him. However, a serious mistake may be made by not including in the overall strategy a number of areas outside the city centre, satellite towns with large young populations which have serious and growing drugs and drug-related problems.

Phase 1 of the Cork local drugs task force plan has been announced, but phase 2 is under assessment and will finish in July. Unfortunately, my sources have said that the indications are that phase 2 projects will not be accepted for funding under the national drugs strategy. Phase 2 specifically refers to four projects in areas outside Cork city where evidence suggests that funding community drug or youth initiatives would be beneficial. Three of the proposed projects are in areas in my constituency. I will only have time to refer to two in detail, but all four have similar problems.

The first is the Carrigaline youth initiative. The project aims to divert young people in the town at risk of or currently abusing drugs and-or alcohol to involve them in a needs-based developmental youth work programme. Evidence of need for such a programme in this area is clear. The Garda juvenile liaison office figures for Carrigaline stand at 50 cases for 2000. There is no paid youth work provision in the town. It continues to grow rapidly and its current population is approximately 16,000. A total of 240 houses per year are built in the area. At least one third of the population are young and there is a growing drugs problem in the town. I live only five minutes from Carrigaline. I have a 16 year old brother and I am well aware of the problem.

Ballincollig youth initiative is the second project. The initiative aims to develop a locally-based project which will employ a community drugs worker to work with young people at risk in the area. Ballincollig has one of the most rapidly growing populations in Ireland. More than 50% of the population comprises young people and its age profile is similar to Ballymun and Knocknaheeny. Two recent studies have recorded that 75% to 78% of 12 to 18 year olds in the town have taken their first alcoholic drink and 45% to 50% take a drink regularly. These claims mean that more than 1,000 young people from the town are drinking regularly. A total of 22% of young people said that they had taken drugs and 6% take them regularly.

Figures break down to show that 500 schoolchildren are engaged in illegal drug activity. I do not wish to be overly dramatic in regard to the problem in Ballincollig, but it does exist. Garda juvenile liaison office figures show approximately 50 cases there last year. There has been an increase in the number of complaints received by local gardaí about young people aged 14 years and upwards who are involved in using and dealing in drugs. Successful prosecutions and drug seizures have taken place in the area and Stop Drugs Now, a local drug counselling group which is open 24 hours a day, has indicated that a substantial number of the complaints it receives come from the Ballincollig area.

The other projects relate to Douglas west in my constituency and Glanmire. The Minister of State is well aware of the difference between the drugs problem in Cork and the capital. Recreational drugs are primarily abused in Cork, but they still present a serious problem. I emphasise that the growth areas of population in Cork are in the satellite towns to which I referred. Many young people and young families are moving to these towns. It is a recipe for disaster if we do not get stuck into these areas in terms of drug treatment. I ask the Minister of State to use his influence to ensure these areas are covered.

The overall aim of the Government's drugs strategy is to provide an effective, integrated response to the problems posed by drug misuse. Since 1997 local drugs task forces have also been established in areas experiencing the worst levels of drug misuse, particularly heroin. As the Deputy will be aware, the task forces bring together key State agencies to work with the local community and voluntary groups to develop appropriate responses to the local drugs problem.

In 1997, the Government allocated £10 million to support the implementation of measures contained in the action plans prepared by the task forces. More than 200 projects were allocated funding to deliver a range of interventions and more than 120 of these projects have been mainstreamed. The task forces are updating their plans for the next three years and the Government has provided £15 million per annum for this purpose.

In this context, the new local drugs task force action plan for Cork city, which I launched earlier this month, is a comprehensive one, developed by the local drugs task force in partnership with the communities involved and the statutory agencies. The plan is evidence of the continued commitment and drive among the members of the local drugs task force and the community at large in Cork to tackling the complex issue of drug misuse.

One of the principal strengths of the local drugs task force process has been to bring all the key players involved in this area together with the aim of identifying how best to tackle this complex problem. The Cork task force has been particularly successful in building confidence and trust between the statutory and community sectors. The national drugs strategy would not succeed, as it has, without this commitment to working in partnership.

While Cork city has been saved from the ravages of heroin misuse, the clear message in the new plan is that there is little room for complacency and the variety of actions recommended for the whole of Cork city underlines the need for early and effective preventive measures. To this end, the Cabinet committee on social inclusion, chaired by the Taoiseach, recently approved funding of £787,500 for 16 of the projects contained in the plan. The remaining proposals are being considered by the national drugs strategy team and I expect their recommendations on these in due course. I will raise with it the four different projects to which the Deputy referred.

The new plan is a natural progression on the previous action plan which was allocated more than £560,000 in 1997. Since then more than £1.1 million has been spent implementing the various programmes approved, many of which have been mainstreamed and as such will continue to receive Government funding. I am sure the Deputy will agree that, by any standards, this represents an unprecedented level of investment at community level in the fight against drugs and is strong evidence of the priority which the Government gives to the local drugs task force process. The revised plan continues to focus primarily on the development of preventive strategies, targeted at young people experimenting with drugs or at risk of becoming involved in problematic drug use.

The task force identified some key gaps and deficiencies in its existing strategy and these, in turn, informed the overall objectives of the new plan which are: to provide training for groups and individuals to increase their capacity to respond to drug misuse in their areas; to extend community based drug projects – on the lines of the models successfully piloted in the first plan – to other areas of need; to provide education programmes and other supports for at risk young people both inside and outside the school setting, as well as providing support, advice and information to their families; to develop additional rehabilitation programmes and services for those in recovery; to provide interventions for homeless drug users; and to respond to the unsafe use of prescribed drugs.

When the plan was being developed, the task force requested that its operational area, which initially covered north Cork city, be extended to include the whole of the city and its surrounding areas. The national drugs strategy team recommended, and it was agreed, that the task force area be extended to be co-terminous with the partnership area, as is the case in other task force areas. The Deputy will be aware that the partnership area in Cork covers the whole of the city, but not the surrounding areas.

In addition to funding allocated to the local drugs task force, Cork city has also been allocated £2.4 million under the young people's facilities and services fund to support 35 individual pro jects as part of an overall drug prevention strategy aimed at young people who are marginalised and at risk of drug misuse. While specific funding is made available to local drugs task force areas where there is an existing heroin problem or has the potential to exist in the particular areas which they serve, the activities of Departments and State agencies, which have a nationwide application, all contribute to the overall national drugs strategy.

In order to ensure the current approach to tackling the drugs problem remains relevant and continues to have an impact, I initiated a comprehensive review of the current drugs strategy in May 2000. The overall objective of the review is to identify any gaps or deficiencies in the existing strategy and develop revised strategies and, if necessary, new arrangements through which to deliver them. As part of the review, an extensive public consultation process was undertaken. Eight regional public fora were conducted, including one in Cork. In addition, almost 190 written submissions were received and meetings took place with 34 different interested groups from all sides of the debate.

The new strategy will provide a policy framework through which all those involved in addressing this complex problem can work for the next number of years. I intend to publish the new strategy in early May.

The Dáil adjourned at 10.45 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 5 April 2001.

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