I propose to take Questions Nos. 326 and 327 together.
As part of the national drugs strategy, ten regional drugs task forces, RDTFs, have been established across the country covering all areas where local drugs task forces are not operating. The RDTFs work in a partnership manner, similar to the local drugs task forces and are made up of nominees from State agencies working in the region, the community and voluntary sectors and elected public representatives.
At the outset the RDTFs were involved in mapping out the patterns of drug misuse in their areas, as well as the current levels of services in place to address drugs misuse in their regions. This work informed the development of action plans to address gaps in key services going forward and these were then forwarded to the national drugs strategy team, NDST, for assessment. All regional drugs task forces plans have now been assessed and allocations totalling just under €5 million per annum have been made to allow them to get a range of projects up and running in their areas.
The table outlines the amounts allocated to each task force.
Task Force
|
Allocation
|
|
€
|
South East
|
665,000
|
Southern
|
565,000
|
East Coast (Greater Dublin area)
|
760,000
|
South West (Greater Dublin area)
|
735,000
|
Northern Area (Greater Dublin area)
|
509,000
|
North Eastern
|
410,000
|
Mid-Western
|
421,700
|
Western
|
340,000
|
Midland
|
320,000
|
North West
|
271,760
|
Total
|
4,997,460
|
Examples of the type of project for which funding has been sanctioned include community drug teams, prison link workers, the production of educational material, the provision of drop in centres, various smaller grants and administrative funding.
It is expected that the RDTF's will only draw down about €0.4 million in the current year. A similar situation existed when the local drugs task forces were established. The drawdown will increase significantly in 2006.