Vol. 539 No. 1
376 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of gardaí deployed further to the recently announced Government drugs strategy and the commitment to deploy additional gardaí in local drugs task forces by the end of the year; the areas from which they will be drawn; if he will give details of the stations and additional numbers of gardaí involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19081/01]
Under the recently published National Drugs Strategy 2001-2008, 100 key performances indicators have been set out for various agencies to complete as part of the overall objectives of the strategy. Included as one of the key performances indicators is the establishment of regional drugs task forces by December.
I am informed by the Garda authorities, who are responsible for the detailed allocation of personnel and resources to individual areas, that the structure and working protocol of these regional task forces have yet to be developed. However, it is anticipated that they will operate along similar lines to the 14 local drugs task forces. Under one of the key performance indicators relevant to An Garda Síochána – KPI No. 7 – reference is made to increasing the level of Garda resources in local drugs task force areas by the end of 2001.
All the performance indicators have yet to be fully developed by the relevant agencies and it will not necessarily follow that the establishment of regional drug task forces will of itself necessitate the allocation of additional and or specific Garda resources.
