Anti-drug phoneline - Cutback puts lives at risk

COMMUNITIES have every reason to decry the decision to withdraw funding from a confidential national phone line service combating drug dealing at local level.

It is the latest area to feel the brunt of savage cutbacks by the Government and is a retrograde step that will put young people at risk. The paltry €25,000 budget is a small price to put on a life. According to those at the coal face of this problem, the Dial to Stop Drug Dealing service had been “very successful”.

Presumably the Government will resort to the familiar ploy of shifting blame onto its predecessor, a Pontius Pilate act no longer justifiable. It is time Fine Gael and Labour accepted political and social responsibility for a swingeing austerity programme that is sucking the economy dry and impoverishing the Irish people.