1149. Deputy Ann Graves asked the Minister for Health if she has increased funding for harm reduction measures targeting a reduction in drug-related harm and deaths, including initiatives to provide a rapid response to the threat of synthetic drugs; and to outline where this increased funding was allocated, in tabular form. [47809/25]

Colm Burke, Minister of State at the Department of Health:

The drug market is continually evolving, with new and more dangerous substances emerging regularly. The Department of Health provides funding to provide harm reduction services and early warning and emergency responses to novel drugs.

In 2025, additional funding of €0.4m was provided for harm reduction initiatives to provide a rapid response to the threat of synthetic drugs, a wastewater drug surveillance programme, a national awareness campaign and capacity building on drug-related violence and intimidation, and extended opening hours for the supervised injecting facility. This funding rises to €0.43m in 2026.

The HSE actively monitor drug markets for signs of concern as part of their early warning and emerging trend projects to inform the HSE Public Health Alert System. The HSE and the National Response and Alert Group (NRAG), a network of relevant stakeholders, collaborate to monitor and respond to drug threats in a timely manner. Through this network, agencies remain in regular contact and review new drugs appearing on the drug market and consider concerns raised by frontline services.

The HSE Safer Nightlife Programme was set up to provide harm reduction services which include free and confidential 'back of house' drug checking, to identify drug in circulation and provide vital information on the contents of samples to help reduce harms for people who use drugs.

As part of the Safer Nightlife Programme in 2025, 110 samples were submitted by festival goers for analysis to the HSE laboratory, which found that MDMA samples varied from containing no MDMA to highly dosed products. One MDMA tablet contained 312 milligrams of MDMA, more than three times the average adult dose representing the highest level of MDMA ever analysed in Ireland. The HSE issued an alert about high-strength MDMA at Electric Picnic via the main stage screens, the Electric Picnic app and Drugs.ie on social media. The HSE also had two teams at the event delivering harm reduction interventions directly to people using drugs, helping them stay informed and apply steps to reduce the associated harms.

I believe that Ireland must continue to develop its response to emerging drug trends. Our ambition will be set out in the successor national drugs strategy currently under development.