218. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Health the overall cost of the Drug and Alcohol Prevalence survey; the base cost for conducting same; and the additional cost per question. [33126/22]

Minister of State at the Department of Health: The national drug and alcohol survey is a general population survey of households to measure the extent and pattern of drug use (including alcohol and tobacco) among a representative sample of those aged 15 and over. The survey is carried out by the Health Research Board (HRB), on behalf of the Department of Health.

The survey is carried out according to standards set by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. The target sample size is c 7,000 people. Details of the methodology can be found in the technical report.

For the 2019/2020 survey, the HRB engaged a third party survey company to carry out the sampling and recruitment of survey respondents and data collection (interviews with the respondents) and an initial analysis of the dataset. A total of 22,828 contacts were made with the 11,788 households that were selected across the country.  Most contacts were in-person visits, which were subsequently halted due to Covid-19.  The total sample achieved was 5,762, which is 87.8% of the initial target of 6,560.   The fee paid to the third party was €706,850 (including VAT). There is no calculation of the additional costs per question.