Vol. 480 No. 7
14 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Taoiseach if the Cabinet committee to be chaired by the Taoiseach to oversee the implementation of the Government's comprehensive drugs strategy has been established; if so, its membership and its terms of reference; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14858/97]
As the Deputy will be aware, the previous Government established a Cabinet drugs committee in October 1996 arising from a report of the Ministerial Task Force on Measures to Reduce the Demand for Drugs. The purpose of the Cabinet sub-committee was to give overall political leadership in the fight against drugs; to review all trends in the drugs problem; to assess progress in the strategy in dealing with both the supply and demand aspects, and to resolve any policy or organisational difficulties which may have inhibited an effective response to the problem. The committee was chaired by the former Taoiseach and comprised the Ministers for Health, Justice, Environment, Education and the Deputy himself as Minister of State.
When the present Government came into office, and recognising the links between social exclusion, drug abuse and alienation, I decided that the most strategic way to tackle the problem of social exclusion was to reconstitute the drugs committee into a wider Cabinet committee which would address disadvantage in the broadest sense. The particular elements I felt were closely linked were the work being done under the Local Development Operational Programme, the National Anti-Poverty Strategy and the National Drugs Strategy. In order to deal with all of these factors, in a more comprehensive way, and as part of our strategy of crime prevention, the Government decided in July, to establish a Cabinet committee on social inclusion and drugs, including local development.
The committee will deal with all the elements of the problem in a holistic way and will build on, and advance, the good work of the Cabinet drugs committee. With enhanced representation at ministerial level it will be possible to focus action across all Government Departments, agencies and programmes.
The committe comprises myself, as chairperson, the Tánaiste; the Minister for Finance; the Minister for the Environment and Local Government; the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs; the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform; the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation; the Minister for Health and Children and the Minister for Education and Science.
