Sinn Féin spokesperson on Addiction, Recovery and Wellbeing, Thomas Gould TD, has today slammed Junior Minister for the National Drugs Strategy, Colm Burke, for his cynical use of funding to pit task forces against each other.

Teachta Gould said:

“The Minister last week announced a €2.3million funding for local and regional drug taskforces. This announcement should have been a step towards undoing the damage caused by Fine Gael to community addiction services during the austerity years. Instead the Minister used it as a cynical move to drive taskforces against each other to compete for crumbs off the table.

“The Minister should have taken the opportunity to reverse the cuts imposed during austerity and provide sustainable multi annual funding for task forces and the projects they support.

“There is still no meaningful update on the review of the Taskforce Handbook. Sinn Féin are committed to increasing autonomy and reducing the power that the HSE hold over Taskforces. The HSE have a role in the addiction sector but so too do community addiction services and these should go hand in hand. Instead, the HSE decides where funding is allocated and what it is spent on. These added layers of bureaucracy do not serve the communities, families or individuals who needs community addiction services.

“Instead of restoring Taskforce budgets to 2008 levels, which has been the ask of all Taskforces for years now, the Minister will force them to be further dependent on the HSE for the allocation of funds. This decision reduces the independence and autonomy of Taskforces while likely forcing them to divert essential resources to completing forms and evaluations processes.

“Taskforces are calling for real and sustained investment that is multi-annual and restores their core funding. The reality is that since Fine Gael’s cruel cuts to their budgets, drug addiction and community harm have increased significantly. This Government has now become part of the problem. They are an obstacle to tackling the causes and consequences of the drug crisis.

“This funding announcement was nothing more than an attempt to further muzzle Taskforces and prevent proactive, localised responses to addiction. I know that across this state, Taskforces are innovative and proactive. They are doing this without the support of government. A Sinn Féin government would reinstate the Taskforce Budgets. We would promote and empower the community addiction sector. We would make sure that in every community, in every family and for every individual, recovery is possible.”