The Tabor Group is a provider of residential addiction treatment services in Ireland. It aims to offer hope, healing, and recovery to clients suffering from addictions through integrated and caring services. In addition to two residential facilities, the organisation provides a continuing care programme to clients who have completed treatment in order to assist with their recovery as well as a community-based programme. Its family support programme offers counselling to families whose loved ones are struggling with an addiction. In 2021, the Tabor Group published its annual report for 2020.¹ This article highlights services provided by the Tabor Group to individuals with a substance use addiction in 2020.

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 illicit drug use. Figures from the service for 2019 were published in the hospital’s annual report in 2020.¹

The Civil Society Forum on Drugs (CSFD) has published a new report, entitled Quality standards of civil society involvement in drug policies.¹ It presents a set of quality standards for policymakers and civil society actors to work towards meaningful collaboration and effective policymaking.

In September 2021, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) published a manual offering practical advice to professionals implementing quality assurance in the area of drug demand reduction, entitled Implementing quality standards for drug services and systems: a six-step guide to support quality assurance.¹ The manual provides an overview of quality standards and how they fit within the broader area of quality assurance processes, as well as a six-step guide for those planning to implement them as part of a quality assurance project.

Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) is a national voluntary agency providing services for homeless people and those that use drugs. There are 22 MQI locations in 12 counties in the Republic of Ireland (see Figure 1). MQI aims to offer accessible, high-quality, and effective services to people dealing with homelessness and addiction in order to meet their complex needs in a non-judgemental and compassionate way. This article highlights services provided by MQI to people who use drugs in Ireland in 2019.¹

Based on the 2016 Census, the Trinity National Deprivation Index ranked Ballymun in Dublin as one of the most disadvantaged communities, if not the most disadvantaged community, in the Republic of Ireland.¹ Ballymun has a long history of drug and heroin use dating back to the 1980s; it remains the community with the highest level of people with problematic opiate use in the country – 10 times greater than the national average.² Also of note, Ballymun has suffered from serious criminality in recent years associated with open drug dealing and a surge in crack cocaine usage.³