Vol. 433 No. 1
232 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Health the amount of moneys provided by the Government to each of the country's eight health boards for the prevention of alcohol and drug abuse; the moneys provided for treatment of alcohol and drug abuse at specialist treatment centres; the number of specialist treatment centres throughout the country receiving funding directly from the Government; and the amount payable to each centre for each of the years 1990 and 1991.
It is not possible to give the Deputy a breakdown of the moneys provided for the prevention of alcohol and drug abuse because health boards are funded by a global allocation. It is a matter for each board to determine the level of funding for the prevention of alcohol and drug abuse. Similarly, the information on specialist treatment centres is not available as funding for these centres forms part of budgets for mental health and community care services.
The one specialist treatment centre receiving funding directly from my Department is the Drug Treatment Centre, Trinity Court. In 1990 the centre received £0.811 million and in 1991 £0.900 million.
The Deputy will be interested to know that my Department is spending approximately £75,000 from the health promotion budget this year on developing and implementing alcohol and drug abuse awareness and training projects at both local and national levels.
233 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Health if, in view of the fact that alcohol and drug abuse are now national problems among adolescents and teenagers, he will give the names and addresses of the treatment centres throughout the country that provide diagnostic and treatment services for young people aged 14 to 18 years.
Treatment centres for people with addiction problems are located in each health board area. There is a comprehensive network of services available throughout the country. The centres and services are run by statutory and non-statutory organisations and provide a wide range of services, including in-patient, out-patient, after-care, counselling, self-help, advice and information. The addictions dealt with include alcohol, drugs, smoking, eating disorders and gambling and the centres cater for both adults and adolescents. I have sent details of the centres to the Deputy but, due to the large number of centres involved, I regret that I do not have the age-profile information sought by her. In this regard, I have also sent her a copy of a recent study by the Health Research Board regarding treated drug misuse in the greater Dublin area which shows, inter alia, that 95 per cent of persons who attended for treatment for drug misuse were aged between 15 and 39 years old and the mean age for treatment was 25 years.
