Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has welcomed the publication of a report into the landscape of substance misuse and its impact on many of the communities of Tallaght and Whitechurch, saying that its findings and recommendations “should be a wake up call for the Government”.

Speaking after the launch of the Tallaght Drugs and Alcohol Task Force report on substance misuse and its impact on communities this morning, Teachta Crowe, a member of Task Force, said:

“Crack cocaine use is now firmly rooted in many of our communities and we can all see the detrimental impact on those communities in terms of public order, intimidation, open drug dealing, violence, mental and physical health, child welfare, deprivation, and neglect. The drug related intimidation and alleged debt has become increasingly worse with some mothers being confronted outside of shops, post offices, and Intreo offices by dealers and their associates.

“We saw the intergenerational damage that the heroin epidemic of the 80s and 90s in Dublin caused and we are only encouraging it to happen again when we strip away funding for groups that work in addiction services and have less gardaí on our streets and in our communities.

“Despite a greater demand on services and an ever-growing population, the Tallaght Drugs and Alcohol Task Force, which funds nine front line community addiction projects in the Tallaght/Whitechurch area, has less funding than it did in 2010. The number of people now being treated in Task Force projects in Tallaght has doubled in that period.

“The Task Force is calling for an additional €1m in government funding to take on more front-line staff to address the crack issue, create more residential addiction, develop more direct interventions for vulnerable young people, and to fund more Gardai on the ground.

“The longer we fail to act, the more families that will be locked into a generational cycle of addiction, trauma and abuse. This government, like its predecessors, is betraying a complete lack of compassion, empathy or understanding of the depth of the crisis facing many of our most vulnerable communities if they do not take this evidence-based report and its recommendations to heart and take immediate action.”