The Department of Health has announced €65,000 in supplementary funding for Ireland's national Drug Related Intimidation and Violence Engagement (DRIVE) project, alongside €50,000 for the Health Research Board (HRB) to expand data collection from family support services.

The €65,000 allocation comes on top of DRIVE's annual recurring funding of €280,000. According to the department, the additional financial support will be used for interagency training, website development, and hosting a national conference focused on tackling drug-related intimidation and associated community harm.

Separately, €50,000 is being provided to the HRB to broaden its data collection on drug-related intimidation to include more family support providers, such as local Family Resource Centres.

Minister of State for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor said the extra funding would strengthen monitoring of intimidation and violence while enhancing the capacity of Drug and Alcohol Task Forces, An Garda Síochána, and local agencies to deliver consistent support.

The funding decision follows DRIVE's first national data report, published earlier this year with the HRB, which recorded more than 1,000 cases of drug-related intimidation across 2024 and 2025. The report noted that incidents were identified in every county in Ireland and revealed that over 40 children had been subjected to drug-related intimidation, including 13 who were actively attending school.