MINISTER CRITICAL OF EDUCATION ON DRUGS

A renewed effort by the State to tackle the problem of early school-leaving
could reduce the level of drug addiction among young people, a weekend
conference in Dublin heard.

One Dublin group which helps people with drug problems said almost a third
of the people on its books left school before the age of 15, and 45 per
cent had never sat a public examination.

"It is very clear that the Department of Education is getting very, very
poor marks in this area," said the Minister of State for Health, Mr Eoin
Ryan.

He said the Department of Education was not responding like other State
agencies to the problem on the ground.

"Obviously, there has been some breakdown in communication, and it needs to
be much more involved than it has up to now."

Mr Ryan said in recent years the sheer scale of the drug problem in the
worst-hit areas had led to a crisis of confidence in the State agencies.

Ms Susan Collins, of Addiction Response Crumlin, told delegates 29 per cent
of the 400 people her group was involved with left school before the age of
15.

She said the Crumlin group dealt with one of the highest rates of early
school-leaving in Dublin and "that is why policy from the bottom up needs
to be influenced".

She added: "They're not advertising in papers that kids are dying any more.
We want aftercare now for these kids. There's no point dishing out
methadone."

Mr Davin Roche, of Bray Partnership, told participants the education system
was "not just about helping middle-class teenagers get their Leaving
Certificate" and stressed the need to address the problem of early
school-leaving in disadvantaged areas.

He said most teachers would know that some teenagers were "having huge,
huge difficulties with the system".

Organised by Combat Poverty Agency (CPA), the conference investigated the
link between poverty, drug use and public policy.

It heard about the experiences of seven community and drugawareness
organisations from Dublin, Drogheda and Athlone which were funded by a CPA
grant scheme aimed at enhancing the contribution of local groups.

Mr Brian Dillon of, NEXUS Research Co-operative, who presented a paper on
the main findings of the CPA programme, pointed out that people involved
with drug addicts were dealing with life-and-death situations every day of
the week, making it difficult to develop "pro-active policy".

Mr Paddy Behan, who is on the SIPTU national executive and is a member of
Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign, said it was important that the local
business community be involved in tackling the drugs issue.

He said that if substance abuse was prevented things would be better for
chambers of commerce and insurance companies, which in turn could be a
source of funds for drug support groups.