Sinn Féin TD Ann Graves has said that this year’s Budget contains “nasty and cynical” cuts to local drug and alcohol task forces.
Graves, who serves as Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on the national drugs strategy, addiction and well-being, said the 25% cut is “totally unacceptable.”
The Dublin Fingal East TD said “the government has abandoned whole communities to the drug crisis” as a result of the overall budget for task forces being cut from €11.6m to €8.7m.
Graves said it reeked of “cynicism” for the government to increase the funding prior to the November 2024 election, and then cut it the minute they get back into office.
She noted that in the Budget for 2024, funding for drug task forces increased from €8.4m to €11.6m, and it has now swung back to €8.7m.
“These cuts will have a very negative and immediate effect on drug services across the state,” she said.
Graves said that community-based drug projects are already “overstretched and under-resourced.”
“I have visited projects, spoken to staff and clients. The Minister for the National Drug Strategy, Murnane O’Connor, is clearly out of touch and needs to realise just how serious the drugs crisis is- these cuts will make a bad situation even worse.”
“Between 1997 and 2005 the Department of Health spent a total of €120m on local drug task forces, in 2006 alone €12.7m was spent on task forces – now, 20 years later, that budget has been cut by over 30%. “
She said that the latest cut represents how “the government has totally given up on tackling the drug crisis.”
Graves noted that in Sinn Féin’s Alternative Budget proposals, the party committed to spending €21.7m on addiction services.
“We are committed to returning funding for all drug task forces to 2008 levels and would have increased it in line with inflation year on year. We would also have introduced multi-annual funding, which would have allowed projects to plan ahead to tackle the causes and consequences of the drug crisis.”
“We would have introduced an Emerging Needs Fund, aiming to give Local Drugs Task Forces flexibility to respond swiftly to evolving drug-related issues in their communities.”
“Sinn Féin firmly believes that every person, every family and every community has the right to recover and our budget would have made this promise a reality,” she stated.