Departmental Funding
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-27
============================================================

Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

We had a discussion about this today at the justice committee and I mentioned that it was only last May that the DRIVE project had been launched. I know we had a discussion as to whether €280,000 was sufficient. It is the start. I want to see more money going into it and there is an ask for more money in respect of it. I am very conscious of the impact that drug-related intimidation and violence has on communities. It is important that those communities know they have the support of the State in combating that level of intimidation. If people believe they are on their own and they have no one to turn to, that is a very lonely place for them to be. If, however, there are support groups in place that can provide relief and support to individuals who are suffering drug-related intimidation, that can strengthen them.
The Garda take this matter extremely seriously as well, as the Deputy knows. Anyone who is subjected to drug-related intimidation should report it to the Garda. The Garda will deal with it sensitively. The alternative is we just allow the law of the Wild West to operate, and that is not acceptable.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:01+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-27