The Adolescent Addiction Service (AAS) of the Health Service Executive (HSE) provides support and treatment in relation to alcohol and drug use for young people and families from the Dublin suburbs of Ballyfermot, Clondalkin, Palmerstown, Lucan, and Inchicore. Services provided include advice, assessment, counselling, family therapy, professional consultations, and medications if required. In 2024, the AAS published a report detailing referrals for 2023.1

The 2021 annual report from National Self-Harm Registry Ireland was published in February 2024.1 The report contains information relating to every recorded presentation of deliberate self-harm to acute hospital emergency departments in Ireland in 2021 and complete national coverage of cases treated. All individuals who were alive on admission to hospital following deliberate self-harm were included, along with the methods of deliberate self-harm that were used. Accidental overdoses of medication, street drugs, or alcohol were not included.

Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) is a national voluntary agency providing services for homeless people and those that use drugs. There are 27 MQI locations in 14 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 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 2022.1 

A new strategy document published by the Irish Prison Service (IPS), entitled Irish Prison Service drugs strategy 2023–2026, proposes to tackle the use of illicit drugs in Irish prisons by focusing on education, detection, reduction, support, and treatment.1 The purpose of the IPS strategy is primarily to update the commitments of the IPS in its previous strategy, Keeping drugs out of prison,2 and to set out clear measures to be taken by the IPS to tackle the problem of substance abuse in prisons over the next three years.

There are 12 institutions in the IPS, comprising 10 traditional ‘closed’ institutions and two open centres that operate with minimal internal and perimeter security. The majority of female prisoners are accommodated in the purpose-built Dóchas Centre adjacent to Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, while the remainder are located in a separate wing of Limerick Prison. Despite a lack of published data, interviews conducted with prisoners indicate that there is a readily available supply of drugs in some Irish prisons. Reports suggest that visits by friends and family and the throwing of drugs over perimeter walls are among the supply routes used in Irish prisons.3