Vol. 569 No. 4
76 Mr. F. O'Dowd asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs what additional services he intends to provide for the 6,500 opiate users receiving no treatment; and the range of services he intends to provide for them in view of the shortfall of ?7 million in his budget for the national drugs strategy for 2003.
As the Deputy is aware, my Department has overall responsibility for co-ordinating the implementation of the national drugs strategy and for the work of 14 local drugs task forces which were established in 1997 in the areas experiencing the highest levels of drug misuse.
The Government has allocated or spent over €65 million to implement in the region of 500 projects contained in the action plans. In addition, services for drug users in all health boards have increased substantially over recent years. For example, in the Eastern Regional Health Authority area, treatment services have expanded from 12 locations in early 1997 to 57 currently. Most of these services offer a range of treatments, including methadone maintenance, methadone reduction, outpatient detoxification, counselling and alternative remedies or therapies.
In relation to methadone maintenance, there were 1,350 places available on the treatment list about seven years ago, whereas currently there are approximately 6,600. Outside the ERHA, treatment clinics have been established in the South Eastern Health Board, Mid-Western Health Board, Western Health Board and Midland Health Board. General practitioners and pharmacists also provide treatment services and their involvement has increased over recent years. Services are also provided by a broad range of voluntary and community agencies which are funded through grants from health boards.
It is not accurate to say that those not on the central methadone treatment list do not receive treatment. While they may not be on a substi tution treatment programme, such opiate users would receive a range of detox or drug-free treatments in both residential and non-residential settings. Other users would be clients of needle exchange programmes, outreach services and other interventions for chaotic users. As the Deputy will appreciate, entry into treatment is a personal choice and, indeed, positive motivation is essential for treatment to have any chance of success.
The Deputy should note that funding of drugs services provided by my Department increased by 16% this year, even though the overall level of funding available to the Department generally has decreased. The increase in expenditure for this year clearly reflects the Government's ongoing commitment to addressing the drug problem, particularly in areas where heroin misuse is most prevalent.
Additional InformationWhile there may be additional demands on the subhead in 2003, I believe that through this increased allocation and close monitoring of spending, we can address such requests for funding over the course of the year.
While I acknowledge that there have been significant changes in the national drugs strategy since 1996, after our last question session here in May, there were photographs in the national papers of young people shooting up heroin on the streets of Dublin, in the presence of the Garda. I ask the Minister to acknowledge that more money is needed for our drugs prevention programme, particularly for such young people. If they are using heroin they are certainly not on methadone treatment. More money needs to be put into support services such as those offered by Merchants Quay, Citywide Drugs Crisis and other projects.
I am aware of the matters to which the Deputy referred. Internationally, the problem is to entice and encourage people into treatment. The percentage of drug users we attract into active treatment is as high if not slightly higher than the norm in most countries. One has to build on services. Drug users may not come looking for methadone or substitution treatments on the first day, but outreach workers are working with those people. We are funding projects such as the one in Merchants Quay, projects which deal with addicts, offering them counselling and needle exchange. One has to try to build up a level of trust and support and hope these people can make their lives less chaotic, go the whole way and look for substitution treatments. We could certainly use more money in the area, but there is a broad range of services available. Every effort is being made. There are extra outreach workers involved, trying to attract addicts into treatment.
The Minister of State's own estimates in his Department indicate that the local drugs task forces face a shortfall of €7 million this year. In their view, that will affect 45% of the drugs task force organisations in Dublin. I ask the Minister if it is true that the numbers of people who die from opiate overdoses in Dublin city are very high. I believe there were 83 such deaths in the past year. This is equivalent to one fifth of all deaths from RTAs, road traffic accidents, all over the country. There is no comparison between the amount of money we spend, rightly and properly, on preventing road traffic accidents and the money spent on preventing deaths from drug overdoses. The Merchants Quay project representatives in particular have been very critical of the lack of new programmes to get more addicts into treatment.
The Minister referred to people in residential units. There are very few such places in Dublin for anyone to go into. That is another area of need. The Minister's policy has utterly failed. It is completely underfinanced. It is a shame and a disgrace that on the city streets, drug abuse incidents such as the one I referred to can be seen daily.
The number of deaths directly related to drugs every year is between 80 and 100. Regarding funding, the Deputy got the relevant document under the freedom of information procedures. My Department's original pitch to the Department of Finance was for an extra €7 million. The regional drugs task forces have been initiated later than expected and some of the programmes promoted by the local drugs task forces have not yet been put in place. Had they been in place last January, we would have been short of funds. We are getting by through various means. We could do with more money, but I do not want the Minister for Finance to hear that we sought more than we needed. The pitch we made would have been necessary had all the programmes been put in place on the due dates, but fortunately they were not.
