IEP4M DRUG INITIATIVE MONEY NOT YET SPENT

Nearly 40 per cent of the 1996 Budget allocation for an initiative to combat
drugs remains unspent, the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee has been
told.

The committee chairman, Mr Jim Mitchell, said he was "horrified" that only
IEP1.5 million of the IEP10 million had been spent in 1997, and IEP4.5
million last year, leaving IEP4 million unspent.

Ms Margaret Hayes, Secretary General of the Department of Tourism, Sport and
Recreation which oversees the drugs initiative, said that after a slow start
over two-thirds of the 200 projects approved were operational and 62 per
cent of the money was spent.

The "major blockage" was winning local acceptability for drug treatment
centres in some areas - "on balance", the centres would have to be set up
even if a minority of local people opposed them. Decisions to set them up
would be better made at local level.

Mr Pat Rabbitte TD, who chaired the last government's ministerial task force
on tackling drugs, said young people were dying from the effects of drugs
and there was a "crying need for action in the community", yet the
Government could not spend the money it had voted to deal with the problem.

Mr Sean Ardagh TD said the Eastern Health Board's procedures for consulting
local people before setting up drug treatment centres were "appalling". They
were "getting the backs up of the people who should be on their side".

The fears of elderly people and mothers with young children about addicts
coming for treatment in their areas could be addressed by the health board,
for example by putting in special liaison officers and showing people how
drug centres worked safely in other areas. Instead it was "going head to
head with local communities".

He said local drug task forces could play a key role in calming people's
fears and preparing them for the opening of such centres, and had already
done so in some areas. Mr Rabbitte said there was a "crying necessity for
someone to drive this effort; otherwise we'll allow objections on the basis
of misinformation and disinformation to delay it for ever".

Mr Mitchell said he would ask all the agencies involved in the drugs
initiative - the Departments of Health, Justice, Education, Tourism and
Environment - to supply the committee with papers on their roles in the next
month, and would convene a conference in two months. He would also ask for
observations from the Eastern Health Board, the Garda and the prison
service.