Drugs strategy in tatters as staff laid off.

It has also emerged the team overseeing €34 million in funding for addiction services and drug task forces are being laid off, with no plans to replace them.

Drugs Minister John Curran has been warned in a letter that funding for frontline addiction projects could be “adversely affected” in the coming months.

The Government had hoped to publish a national strategy in April but its steering group fell apart last week when community groups pulled out of talks over concerns about the minister subsuming control of the drugs strategy into his office under a new agency.

Mr Curran has since requested an emergency meeting with community representatives on Tuesday.

The Department of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs said yesterday it would be May before the new strategy is published.

But addiction services privately fear the blueprint for drug programmes over the next seven years may not be in place until next year.

In the meantime, services face a limbo scenario because of ambiguity over funding. Staff with the National Drugs Strategy Team (NDST), who manage funds for 460 addiction projects nationwide, are being let go and contracts with community and voluntary representatives are set to finish.

There is concern the department has no plans, staff or expertise to take control of drug strategy funds when the NDST winds up.

NDST acting director Aoife Davy refused to comment but confirmed the full support team for its offices would be let go by April 30. Some of the agency’s staff have been with its office since 1997.

It is thought the remaining state representatives with the NDST, including a garda and department liaison officers, will be subsumed into the minister’s office as part of his new agency.

A letter from the NDST to Mr Curran obtained by the Irish Examiner says: “With just over a month left before the staff are made redundant, there’s no indication that you have identified the appropriate staff within your department who will take over key roles which are essential to support the work of the taskforce.

“There’s a real danger that if the transfer of duties is not given the necessary priority by your department, the active work with the task forces and projects to ensure continued funding for frontline addiction services could be adversely affected over the coming months.”

The Department of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs said yesterday that staff at the NDST were on fixed-term contracts. It was inappropriate to comment further, a statement said, as the new drugs strategy was under discussion.

Anna Quigley, with the CityWide Drugs Crisis Campaign, said her group had pulled out of discussions because they were a farce and the decision to close the NDST was a “disaster”.

“There’s no point in a civil servant responding to a drugs problem on the ground from an office; they won’t have a clue,” she said.  

Source: The Irish Examiner, 30/03/2009