Green Party Senator Mark Dearey has welcomed new regulations to control recreational activities in sensitive nature areas like along the River Boyle, in the Baltray Boyne estuary area and on Bettystown and Laytown sand dunes.
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Advisory Group hopeful of more support after meeting Minister Carey
Chairperson of the Dundalk Drugs Advisory Group Cllr. Mark Dearey , in welcoming the meeting with Minister for State with responsibility for Drugs strategy , Pat Carey, has indicated that he used the opportunity to make the case for Dundalk to be allocated a Local Area Drugs Task Force in the 2008 review of the National Drugs Strategy.
Speaking after the meeting at the Town Hall on Tuesday aftrenoon, Cllr Dearey pointed out that the Advisory Group over the past year has been extremely proactive in atttracting extra resourcing into the town to counter the drug addiction that so many have been caught up in.
" I outlined to Minister Carey that in establishing the Advisory Group, we in Dundalk have built a strong working relationship with the North East Regional Drugs Task Force and with community agencies throughout the town. The work has been carried out patiently and carefully and we now have demonstrated to the Regional Task Force that there is a competent and coordinated response to the heroin problem in Dundalk. It certainly helped in securing the funding for the outreach and councilling work now in place and meant we were successful in drawing down over 20 thousand euro for an addiction studies programme that 25 local workers in the community are beginning this week. We have gone to tender for a piece of research to measure the full scale of hard drug use in Dundalk so that we can make an empirically based argument for Local Area Task Force Status next year. If we win that argument then as a town we will really begin to see serious resourcing going into a wholistic response. As an established workin group we are currenly engaged with the local GP group to see if we can get a second doctor in town to work on the methadone programme so that former heroin users can get onto the tremendously effective aftercare programmes being run intown by the TURAS Councilling Service. Finally we will be outlining to the Minister our work to date with our counterparts in Drogheda in establishning residential treatment within Louth, serving both towns and the wider County.
Cllr, Dearey continued by saying that he believes, " the work of the past year has demonstrated a response involving all the sectors in town can bring results. The Town Council who established the Advisory Group have brought together all the relevant players, the HSE, Community Development Groups, Gardai , former users etc around the drugs issue. The fact that Regional Task Force have put money and resources into Dundalk shows that they recognise we are serious about taking on the problem. And now, having met with Minister Carey, he too knows that as a Council and a Community we have not buried our heads in the sand but are developing solutions. The work and resourcing needs to be greatly increased so that , we reduce the demand, we reduce the supply, we create pathways away from addiction and have the aftercare in place to help people regain control over their lives. He concluded by stating "I believe the Minister heard the case clearly and saw at first hand that if given the opportunity, the people are here, to turn the problem on its head. I will stay in close contact with the Minister to ensure that we in Dundalk are right up there in the list of priorities when the new National Drugs Strategy is published next year."