Questions over 'incomprehensible' exclusion of community groups from drugs strategy steering group

The Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign, Family Addiction Recovery Ireland (FARI) and Uisce, which represents people who use or have used drugs, have informed the Oireachtas drugs committee about their exclusion. File picture

The exclusion of community, family, peer, and traveller groups as well as local drug task forces from a department of health steering committee overseeing the development of the next national drugs strategy has been described as “incomprehensible”.

The Oireachtas drugs committee decided on Thursday to ask the minister of State for the national drugs strategy (NDS) and the minister of health to explain the reasoning behind the exclusion.

The Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign, Family Addiction Recovery Ireland (FARI) and Uisce, which represents people who use or have used drugs, have informed the committee about their exclusion.

At Thursday’s hearing, Pavee Point, the Traveller body, and the Local Drugs and Alcohol Task Force network revealed that they too are not part of the NDS "reference group".

Citywide, established in 1996, has been part of national drug strategy steering groups for decades. FARI is a relatively new organisation that has replaced the long-established but now defunct National Family Support Network, which has also been on drug strategy bodies, as has Uisce.

The Local Drugs and Alcohol Task Force, set up in 1997, are partnerships between the statutory, voluntary, and community sectors.

Speaking at the hearing, Local Drugs and Alcohol Task Force network chair, Aoife Bairéad, said it was “extremely worrying” that there has been no collaboration or coordination with task forces and the department of health to develop the next NDS.

Citywide coordinator Anna Quigley said the exclusion is an “extraordinary sidelining and disrespecting of extensive, hard-won and invaluable knowledge and experience” of communities and community groups.

She said there was “no logic” to it other than the community groups “will have a huge influence” in the steering group and the strategy adopted.

John Paul Collins of Pavee Point said the department was excluding the groups to “make their life easier”.

Committee chairman Gary Gannon, Social Democrats TD for Dublin Central, described the exclusion as “incomprehensible”.

Following discussions with members, he said the committee would invite Minister of State Jennifer Murnane O’Connor to attend to explain the decision. 

The department of health has previously said the community organisations were “respected stakeholders” of the NDS and were involved in consultations for the strategy. There are individual community drug groups on the reference group.