Pilot drug court expected to be in place this summer

The Minister for Finance is to announce the Drug Courts Planning Committee next week. The committee of 23 members, including four judges, is being set up to plan a pilot drug court.

It will be chaired by District Court Judge Desmond Hogan and is being asked to plan the resources and facilities needed to support a drug courts system and to establish a pilot project to start in the summer.

The system, which originates in the US, would see people charged with non-violent drug offences sentenced to treatment rather than prison. Treatment would be supervised by the courts.

Last year a working group on a courts commission chaired by Mrs Justice Denham recommended strongly that the system be introduced into the Dublin District Court.

The Department of Justice predicted the pilot scheme could be introduced by this month, but this will not now be put in place until the committee has reported. District Court Judge Gerard Haughton, a High Court judge, Mr Justice Barr, and Judge Kieran O'Connor of the Circuit Court have also been nominated to the committee.

Supt Eddie Rock, from the Garda National Drugs Unit, and Ms Anna Quigley, from the Dublin Citywide community organisation, will also be members.

Other members include Mr P.J. Fitzpatrick, former chief executive of the Eastern Health Board and newly appointed chief executive of the Courts Agency, and representatives from the Departments of Justice, Education, Tourism and Health.

The Law Society, the Bar Council and the offices of the Attorney General, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Chief State Solicitor will also be represented, along with the Probation and Welfare Service, the Southern Health Board, FAS and the EHB.

The committee's terms of reference are "to initiate, develop and oversee" a planning programme, "to assess the adequacy" of resources needed to support a programme and "to plan, establish and monitor" a pilot project.

It will be asked to determine the costs of the programme and identify "the scope for diverting resources arising from savings generated or likely to be generated in other programme areas".