Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 14 June 2022

Joint Committee On Health

Addiction Services: Discussion

Ms Jackie McKenna:

We have a great working relationship with the Garda. Our facilitators on the ground work with family members who have been impacted by drug debt intimidation of their loved one or themselves.

Although the national family support network closed its doors last year, through our network and contacts with people on the ground and our involvement with the national steering group of the Family Addiction Support Network, family support groups on the ground came together. We let the Government know that family support is still working on the ground right across Ireland, and that it is only the legal entity that is gone. Our contacts within that group allowed us to assess drug-related intimidation and we were able to work with the Garda and the Drogheda Implementation Board to put together a proposal to deal with drug-related intimidation. I am not sure if this is feeding into the Deputy's question.