Project that helps recovering drug addicts in jeopardy

ROBERT knows what he’ll be doing if his employer goes to the wall.

"With the place going down, I'll be back out on the streets, up to no good. If it wasn't for this place I'd be out on the street on drugs."

Robert Byrne is one of 15 recovering heroin addicts employed by an innovative environmental project in Dublin's south inner city.

Liberties Recycling, which employs 50 people, diverts 200 tonnes of clothes every month from the city's overcrowded dumps and reuses them.

But now the FÁS-supported project is set to close when they are evicted from their premises.

Just over a week ago, Robert had his three-monthly contract renewed. The father-of-two also turned 31 in the same week. He's also off methadone, the replacement for heroin, a month now. He's getting his life together.

"I'm doing well for myself. I'm waiting on a new place for me and my girlfriend.

"Before I came here, one of the aunties had the children. I couldn't remember Christmas, things like that."

Robert, who was on heroin for seven years, is now learning new skills.

"I've done a forklift course and I passed the test for that. I hope to do other training."

He added: "there's also a support group here; stops me from relapsing. There's counsellors if you need them."

Liberties Recycling manager Philip Maloney is worried about the future for recovering addicts like Robert. "Where are they going to go? Who wants to take on a drug user?"

He said their lease on Basin Street is up in December when the landlord is going to develop the site. Philip wants Dublin City Council and the National Drugs Strategy headed by Minister of State Noel Ahern to step in. He said the company takes in 200 tonnes of clothes every month from charity shops. They process and regrade it before sending it to England, where it is used in carpets and bedding.

Some 40% is sent to west Africa. "About 70% of charity shops come through our doors; the stuff they can't sell. Where will that go otherwise, asked Philip.

"Imagine the cost to the council of dumping that."

The three local drugs task forces have asked the National Drugs Strategy Team to fund the project.

A spokesman for Mr Ahern said the National Drugs Strategy Team was not yet in a position to make a recommendation to the minister, and that the matter was still being discussed.

A spokesman for Dublin City Council said they had agreed to a meeting with Liberties Recycling.