Strategy Statement 2022–2024

An Garda Síochána Strategy Statement 2022–2024 was published on 9 June 2022.1 The mission of An Garda Síochána (AGS) for the duration of the strategy is simply ‘Keeping people safe’ (p. 6). While the strategy is set against the backdrop of living in a post-pandemic world, with global political and economic uncertainty, AGS is committed to evolving and meeting policing demands that are continually changing. The five pillars that the strategy focuses on are:

• Community
• Tackling crime and preventative policing
• Victims and the vulnerable
• Protecting the security of the Irish State
• Sustainable change and innovation.

The 2021 annual report of the Courts Service was published on 28 July 2022. While the report presented data for all criminal cases arising within the Irish justice system between January and December 2021, this article only discusses the statistics of prosecutions for drug offences.1 The data provided are for overall drug law offences. The Courts Service in Ireland does not distinguish between the different supply offences and possession/use offences (Courts Service, personal communication, 2017).

The 2021 annual report of the Department of Justice was published on 18 January 2023.1 The report outlines the progress made by the Department to fulfil goals and objectives identified in its Statement of Strategy 2021–2023.2

The Ana Liffey Drug Project (ALDP) is a ‘low-threshold, harm reduction’ project working with people who are actively using drugs and experiencing associated problems. ALDP has been offering harm reduction services to people in the north inner-city area of Dublin since 1982, from premises at Middle Abbey Street. ALDP offers a wide variety of low-threshold, harm reduction services that provide pathways for people who use drugs out of their current circumstance, including addiction and homelessness.

The services offered in Dublin include:

• Open access
• Assertive outreach
• Needle and syringe programme
• Medical services
• Stabilisation group
• Detox group
• Harm reduction group
• Treatment options group
• Assessment for residential treatment
• Key working and case management
• Prison in-reach.

The Danger of Viral Exposure (DOVE) Service in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin was established to meet the specific needs of pregnant women who have or are at risk of blood-borne or sexually transmitted bacterial or viral infections in pregnancy. Exposure may also occur through substance use. Figures from the service for 2021 were published in the hospital’s annual report in 2022.1

Clinical activity

Figure 1 shows the number of women who booked into the DOVE Service for antenatal care each year during the period 2011–2021. It also shows the diagnosis of viral disease for these women. During 2021, some 166 women booked into the DOVE Service for antenatal care.