Departmental Strategies
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-05
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Mary Fitzpatrick (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I join the Minister of State in complimenting the local drugs task forces. I served on the original Tolka area task force, now known as the Finglas-Cabra task force. Through that we did incredible work, and the task forces have done incredible work. Not only are they helping individuals and their families and then the wider community to deal with their addiction and achieve recovery, but they have also established really powerful and constructive relationships between the statutory authorities, the Garda, the local authorities, the schools and others in the community. They are incredibly powerful. I really welcome the Minister of State's commitment that the local drugs task forces will have a significant role in the new drugs strategy. Also, the principle of equality of access to services is imperative. We have an unequal distribution and an unequal access system at the moment. We have places where there are long waiting lists. There are places where there are absolutely no services. It is unacceptable. I welcome the Minister of State's acknowledgement and her recognition of the nature and the needs of our drugs crisis now, that it is nationwide, that it is urban and rural, that it involves polydrug use and that it is not just in marginalised communities. We also need to ensure that very significant effort is put into prevention. There needs to be ring-fenced funding for prevention. There needs to be multi-annual funding for the drugs task forces and for all our drugs work.
I commend the Minister on her work.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-05