On 14 January 2011 Tallaght Drugs Task Force hosted an interactive workshop, ‘Building a service user voice’,     in co-operation with the Tallaght Service Users Forum. The Forum was established in 2005 with three goals: to be an effective strategic and professional committee/forum; to engage, inform and hear the voice of service users; and to support the partnership of service users and service providers to enhance service design and delivery. During the workshop, participants got the opportunity to work in groups with members of the Forum and service providers as well as representatives from the voluntary and statutory bodies. Each of the working groups explored barriers to service-user participation and what could be done to overcome them.