REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER VISIT TO AN ART EXHIBITION
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF HER VISIT TO AN ART EXHIBITION ORGANISED BY TALLAGHT DRUGS TASK FORCE
Thank you for inviting me to be with you today – I always enjoy visiting art exhibitions and when they involve children’s art I enjoy them all the more.
This is a very important week for us all. Throughout Ireland and indeed throughout all countries of the European Union, activities are taking place in this European Drug Prevention Week which will hopefully create a greater awareness among people, and especially young people, of the dangers of drug misuse.
Indeed it was at the National Basketball Arena here in Tallaght last Sunday, that the Drug Prevention Week was launched by the National Co-ordinating Committee with a Fun Day for young people and families which, I understand, promoted sport and music as positive alternatives to drug-taking for teenagers and was a great success–enjoyed by one and all.
The theme of this year’s European Drug Prevention Week is “Multidisciplinary approaches and drug prevention: awareness raising in society and partnerships”. The events organised by Tallaght Drugs Task Force during this week reflect this partnership approach.
The Task Force itself is a model partnership comprising of the relevant statutory agencies and includes representation from the community and voluntary sectors, working together to tackle the local drug problem
Prevention we recognise is vital to tackling the problem of drug abuse in today’s society. While we must of course provide treatment and after care for people who are addicted to drugs, it is widely accepted that an effective long term strategy for tackling the problem must also focus on preventing people from becoming involved with drugs in the first place. We are very aware of the consequences when people make a conscious decision in their lives to start taking drugs – beginning the downward spiral. The drugs culture is one of the worst abusers of children, families and communities.
For these reasons, events such as today’s – and the numerous other efforts being made every day throughout the year to advise our young people on the dangers of drugs and offer them alternative life choices – are extremely important.
The Tallaght Drugs Task Force is to be highly commended for the excellent work done in this regard. Your partnership has developed a comprehensive strategy to tackle drug abuse in this area and is introducing a number of important initiatives in the areas of treatment, rehabilitation, education and prevention to achieve this aim.
Community participation is an important part of the Task Force ethos, not only here in Tallaght but in the other Task Forces which have been set up around Dublin. It is perhaps one of the paradoxes of modern society that it is often in the communities most victimised by economic and social deprivation that the greatest levels of community spirit are to be found. Nowhere is this community spirit more evident than here in Tallaght, where community groups play such an important role in responding to the problems and challenges that modern day life presents to them.
While Community groups may not have the training and expertise available to state agencies to deal with problems such as drugs misuse, they more than compensate for this with local knowledge of the problem, identification of the needs of their own children and, not least, with sheer commitment.
I would like to finish by saying how impressed I am by the high standard of the contributions to today’s exhibition. They certainly show the wealth of talent and initiative which exist here in Tallaght and I would like to warmly congratulate everyone who has helped to make this event such a great success.
I wish in particular, to congratulate the Tallaght Drugs Task Force for your many successes and achievements in the short time since you were founded. Your contribution to the fight against drugs is of the utmost importance to the community of Tallaght and indeed to society as a whole.
Thank You.