Alarm at removal of minister to lead drugs strategy

A LEADING drugs body has expressed alarm at the Government’s decision to leave the National Drugs Strategy (NDS) without a junior minister to implement it.

The criticism comes after the former minister of state with responsibility for the NDS, John Curran, became the new chief whip in Tuesday’s Cabinet reshuffle and was not replaced.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, which houses the NDS, said the drugs brief would now be under the direct responsibility of its new minister, Pat Carey, himself a former junior minister in charge of the NDS.