Groups call for halt on proposal to 'get community sector out' of drugs task force

CityWide coordinator Anna Quigley said: “If this is allowed to go ahead this Friday it brings down the curtain on the inter-agency partnership approach that has been at the heart of our national drugs strategy since 1996." File photo: Maura Hickey

An umbrella group for community drug organisations has said Department of Health plans will remove their representation on a powerful steering group responsible for implementing the National Drugs Strategy (NDS).

The CityWide Drugs Crisis Campaign told the Oireachtas Health Committee that the department intends to make the change this Friday, at the next meeting of the NDS National Oversight Committee (NOC).

The health committee is now going to discuss the issue, with calls from most committee members for urgent action to stop the proposal before Friday. The committee also heard of a looming “funding crisis” in Tallaght, west Dublin, where community groups recently highlighted the scale of the crack cocaine problem there.

CityWide coordinator Anna Quigley called on the committee to raise the representation issue with the department and drugs strategy minister Frank Feighan and health minister Stephen Donnelly.

She said that while they had not been given any rationale for the decision, she said the department had proposed a wider Civil Society Group for the NOC. She said that while CityWide would welcome that as an addition, it seemed to be a “replacement” for the task force representatives, which she said was not acceptable.

“If this is allowed to go ahead this Friday it brings down the curtain on the inter-agency partnership approach that has been at the heart of our national drugs strategy since 1996," Ms Quigley said.

"We’ll be turning our backs on communities like Tallaght and all the other communities around the country and we’re calling on the government and all of you to make sure this doesn’t happen.” 

"Getting the community sector out"

Cork North Central Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould said it was clear the department had “an agenda” and were bringing forward the Civil Society Group as a way of “getting the community sector out”.

He said the committee needed to get the minister and his officials in to explain their rationale and that, in the meantime, the committee should write to the Minister urging him that the proposal be "halted”.

Social Democrats Deputy for Dublin North West Roisín Shortall and Fine Gael Galway Senator Sean Coyne urged the committee to write to the minister before Friday’s meeting, with Ms Shortall saying the letter should call for the proposal to be “reversed as a matter of urgency”.

Ms Shortall, a former drugs strategy minister, said she “cannot for the life of me” understand the rationale for the decision.

Green Party deputy for Dublin Central Nessa Hourigan said she was “deeply concerned” at the proposed change and urged the committee to ask the Minister to “pause” the decision before he comes before them.

Cork North Central Fine Gael TD Colm Burke said the department had told him they were setting up a 14-person Civil Society Group on the NOC. He urged the committee to get both the minister and his officials in before them.

Committee chair Sean Crowe, Sinn Féin deputy for Dublin South West, said the committee would write to the minister about the changes and to ask him and his officials to appear before the committee.

Tallaght's crack cocaine problem

Grace Hill, coordinator of Tallaght Drugs and Alcohol Task Force, which published their crack cocaine research last month, said there was an “urgency and desperation” to the crack issue.

She welcomed the proposal to have the minister in before the committee to discuss funding saying the task force was “in disbelief” at the proposed national budget of €500,000 to respond to the crack problem next year and said they were really concerned at their funding come January.

Shane Hamilton, coordinator of Jobstown Addressing Drug Dependency in Tallaght said the crack trade was an “industry” in the area and that young users were building up “massive debts”. He said crack was a “game changer”, in that, unlike heroin, there was no medical substitute (methadone) to try and treat it.

He said the community groups needed “to be resourced properly” to deal with the crack problems, including users, some of them parents, sleeping rough in the area. Mr Hamilton pointed out that they had been raising the crack issue for the last five to six years. He likened the consequences to a “sleeping giant”.

Ms Quigley pointed out that funding to local task forces was cut by 34% between 2008 and 2013 and that there had been no restoration to community projects since.

Ms Hill said street work for young people caught up in the drug trade was crucial and hoped to set up a project. She said that unfortunately the drug pusher – which their Range Rover and Canada Goose jackets – were who “young people are looking up to”.

Both Ms Hill and Mr Hamilton said groups of young people, some of them involved in dealing, hanging around local shops and post offices was “very intimidating” not only for drug users who owe money or who are trying to recover but for the general community.

Responding, the Department of Health said it “strongly rejected” the claims made by CityWide.

“There is no proposal to remove community and voluntary networks from the national oversight committee for the national drugs strategy,” the department said in a statement.

“Instead, the Department is proposing to establish a civil society group on drugs, which will widen and deepen the involvement of community and voluntary groups in the implementation of the strategy.” 

The statement said there had been “a broad welcome” for the proposal to establish a civil society group and the Department was meeting with relevant groups to discuss the format and operation of the group.

It said: “The Department strongly rejects as unfounded the assertion by Citywide that community groups are being “written out” of the national drugs strategy. Minister Feighan has invited Citywide to discuss its concerns at the national oversight committee meeting on 3 December.” 

The statement added: “Minister Feighan would welcome an opportunity to attend the Oireachtas Committee on Health to present the recently published mid-term review of the national drugs strategy and the strategic priorities for 2021-2025.”