Helping addicts off methadone needs proactive effort.

There are about 8,600 former heroin users on methadone treatment, some of whom have been on the treatment for up to 25 years.

After concerns were raised about the length of time some are on the treatment at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs yesterday, Mr Curran said it was something he intended to pursue.

“We do not have an effective methadone reduction programme in place,” he admitted. However, he said a new national drugs strategy, which was being finalised with a view to bringing it before Government for approval in April, would look at this issue and at “how to move people on”.

But he also said there was a need to make methadone more readily available around the country, particularly outside Dublin. Waiting times in a small number of areas need to be addressed, he added.

Several members of the committee urged the Minister to ensure the new strategy also covers alcohol abuse.

An early draft of the strategy recommends the establishment of an office of the minister for drugs which would have overall responsibility for operation and policy issues regarding drugs strategy.

Mayo Fine Gael TD Michael Ring said one Minister needed to have overall responsibility for tackling the drugs problem as they were at the root of gangland crime and why so many people were being murdered.

Catherine Byrne, a TD for Dublin South Central, expressed concern that local drugs taskforces were having their budgets cut by €30,000-€40,000 this year and, as a result, some counselling and outreach services were in danger of being axed. Mr Curran said taskforces were being funded to almost the same level as in 2008 but some groups received funding from a range of sources and some of these may have been cut.