Government must clarify strategy for drug task forces, says Graves

Sinn Féin spokesperson on the National Drug Strategy, Addiction & Well Being Ann Graves TD, challenged Minister Jennifer Murnane O’Connor to clarify budgets to drug task forces.

Speaking at Joint Committee on Drug Use, Ann Graves TD, said:

“There was little new in today’s presentation to the committee by the minister.

“There has been a serious increase in drug use right across the state, in fact it has increased by 50%. Yet funding for task forces and community-based projects has not matched this demand.

“The minister should have taken the opportunity to clarify if the government has cut funding to drug task forces. According to the budget figures the core funding has been cuts by 25%, from €11.6m to €8.7m. They were the figures in this year’s budget proposals.

“Funding must also be made available to develop addiction services outside Dublin. However difficult it is for people in Dublin to access addiction services, it is virtually impossible to access any service in rural Ireland and the midlands is a total desert. The government have utterly failed to meet that challenge. People having to bus it to Dublin for drug treatment must end.

“I have met with community representatives, community projects, service providers and service users there is deep disappointment at the lack of real consultation in the development of the National Drug Strategy. This strategy is heavy on bureaucracy but light on consultation. It is unacceptable that there were no community representatives on any of the committees involved in drafting this important strategy. I strongly believe the community sector should have been included.

“Tackling the causes and consequences of the drug crisis needs to be an all-government strategy. This is particularly true when it comes to tackling drug related intimidation. The minister stated that you will be making additional funding available to task forces, but there was no detail on how much or how it would be allocated.

“I urged the minister to allocate the funding directly to task forces, they already have drug related intimidation groups in place and are best placed to allocate this funding. Instead, she is suggesting that that task forces and community organisations will compete against each other for this funding.

“I welcomed the minister’s commitment to meet with my office to discuss funding for local and regional drug task forces. I will be demanding that there are no budget cuts to the core funding of drug task forces.”