Government ‘determined to deal with spread of heroin’

DRUGS MINISTER Pat Carey has insisted the Government was “determined to deal” with the spread of heroin across the country.

Responding to a special report on heroin in yesterday’s Irish Examiner, he said the National Drugs Strategy aimed to address the problem.

Fine Gael said the spread of heroin was “a grave threat to communities throughout Ireland” and claimed warnings about the spread had been ignored.

Mr Carey said the rise in heroin addicts seeking treatment was a positive development. Figures supplied to the Irish Examiner showed the number of new treatment cases involving heroin had, on average, doubled outside greater Dublin between 2002 and 2008, and had trebled in some regions.

“Generally speaking, increases in treatment figures are welcome. While I acknowledge that the problem has spread to other parts of the country in recent times, we are determined to deal with this issue.”

He said new methadone clinics had opened in Cork, Tralee and Wexford, and that these would be followed shortly by facilities in Kilkenny, Waterford, Limerick, Dundalk and Drogheda.

Mr Carey, Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, said difficulties in relation to services in Gorey, Co Wexford, were “being addressed” and that progress should be made in the midlands in the coming months.

There is, on average, a waiting list of more than a year in the midlands and of year in the south east.

Garda prosecutions showed heroin offences had trebled between 2002 and 2007. The increases were greatest in the south east (up 2,000%) and the south (up 800%).

Mr Carey said: “Garda prosecutions, in part, reflect greater focus on the heroin problem.” He said seizures were down this year.

He said progress was now being made on rehabilitating recovering heroin addicts.

Fine Gael spokesman on Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs Frank Feighan said: “We all remember that one of the most tragic features of the last recession was the heroin crisis which threatened to destroy some Dublin communities. We are now facing the grave prospect of seeing this happen again all over the country.

“The Government and its agencies in this area must take the information revealed today seriously and target scarce resources to the best effect to prevent a social crisis on top of the financial crisis.”

nClarification — A special report into the heroin crisis facing many Irish communities which was published in yesterday’s Irish Examiner contained a number of quotes which were wrongly attributed to the coordinator of the South East Regional Drug Task Force (SERDTF), Chris Purnell.

We would like to clarify that due to a production error quotes, in which the HSE were strongly criticised in relation to their failure to establish methadone services in Wexford town, which should have been attributed to Paul Delaney, the coordinator of the Cornmarket Project in Wexford town, were incorrectly attributed to Mr Purnell.

Mr Purnell has also asked that it be pointed out that he does not run the Farronsheen Youth and Community Centre in Waterford city.