Minister announces funding for drug and inclusion services

Drugs Strategy Minister, Hildegarde Naughton, said: “The funding recognises the important role of community and voluntary groups in providing drugs and inclusion health services, and acknowledges the increased costs of providing these essential services.” File picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Drugs Strategy Minister, Hildegarde Naughton, has announced €3.5 million in funding to maintain existing drug and inclusion services across all health regions.

The allocation breaks down to between €330,000 and €445,000 per Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO).

They include:

• CHO 4 — Kerry and Cork – which will receive €445,000;
• CHO 3 — Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary/East Limerick - €330,000;
• CHO 5 — South Tipperary, Carlow/Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford - €330,000 

The funding will be distributed through CHOs based on guidance issued by the Department of Health and the allocations are based on local populations.

“The funding recognises the important role of community and voluntary groups in providing drugs and inclusion health services, and acknowledges the increased costs of providing these essential services,” Ms Naughton said.

"I am allocating between €330,000 and €445,000 per annum to CHOs to support existing services to meet the health needs of socially excluded groups, such as people who use drugs and people who are homeless."

She said the funding complements the “once-off” inflation fund, which provided €3.9m to drugs and inclusion health services in 2023. The minister said it was envisaged that the funding will be distributed in Q3, 2023.

In June 2023, Minister Naughton announced increased funding of €500,000 for cocaine and crack cocaine services.

Last month, frontline community drug projects said they were having to turn away vulnerable people or ask them to come back another time due to a lack of funding.

They said the services were now on "life support" and asked the Government to help them with funding.

The Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces — most of them in Dublin, with one in Cork city and another in Bray, north Wicklow — said the lack of core funding was unsustainable given they face a huge increase in demand for their services.

The task forces said they were being asked to provide innovative solutions but that a lot of their time and energy is spent on governance.