Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú: We are here to discuss the planned removal of the community and voluntary addiction network groups from the national oversight committee on the delivery of the national drugs strategy. We believed the removal was going to happen on Friday. A number of us met and the Minister of State will have received a letter as well as communications from a number of people on this matter. There has been a stay of execution and there is talk of further discussion, which needs to happen. I am seeking real engagement. The concern is that we will go through the motions only for what we feared happening last Friday happening anyway.

There is another concern. There were six groups: the family addiction support network steering group, CityWide, UISCE, the voluntary addiction network teams and two additional bodies that changed from time to time. The difficulty is that we believe this number will be reduced to four and then become the civil society forum. The problem with having a civil society forum is that the Department will make a determination as to which personnel will sit on it. This does not reflect accountability, transparency or the idea of the national drugs strategy having ground-up community representation. It is similar to what is happening on the regional drugs task forces. Whether one is dealing with the Department or the HSE, community organisations will say that they are dealing with corporatism. We would be dealing with corporatism and bureaucracy and the cutting out of the community voluntary sector. That is not good enough and we need to get commitments today....

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[See also, related written answer: Healthcare policy, on the Oireachtas website]