Vol. 536 No. 1
153 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation if he has received an application for funding for a centre (details supplied) in Dublin 12; and the public consultation which should take place for this project. [13472/01]
The Dublin 12 local drugs task force, comprising the districts of Crumlin, Drimnagh, Kimmage and Walkinstown, action plan was submitted to the national drugs strategy team in July 2000. It was assessed by the team, which recommended that phase one of the plan be allocated funding of £510,500. This allocation will fund a total of 15 projects in the Dublin 12 area and was approved by the Cabinet committee on social inclusion in January 2001.
An extensive consultation process was undertaken by the local drugs task force in the drawing up of the action plan. This included the circulation of a questionnaire to all houses on Walkinstown Avenue concerning the views of the residents in October 1998, and a meeting in May 1999 to select a person from the community to represent the area on the task force. In addition, a community forum for all of the residents of the Dublin 12 area was held in November 1999 in order to get the views of the local community in preparation of the plan. In December 1999, the task force also employed the services of a facilitator to work with the Walkinstown community to help it identify the priority services needed in the area.
The centre referred to by the Deputy is a proposed resource centre for young people of the Walkinstown-Greenhills area which it is hoped will provide support services, advice and information on drug related issues for young people of the area.
The national drug strategy team did not recommend that the centre be funded at this time, but rather that the proposal will be considered in the context of phase two funding of the task force, which will commence when all the phase one applications from the task forces have been completed.
