The College of Psychiatry of Ireland (CPsychI) has recommended a title change for the Minister of State with responsibility for Drugs Strategy, Róisín Shortall, to incorporate alcohol, following its inclusion into the National Drugs Strategy.

The recommendation to call her the ‘Minister of State with responsibility for Drugs Strategy and Alcohol’ was part of a call for the remit of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs to be extended to alcohol under the ‘research pillar’ of the overall strategic aims submitted by the College at a recent Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Health meeting.

The College’s Faculty of Addictions also wants a dedicated treatment agency or national directorate of addictions within the governance structure of the Oversight Forum on Drugs and Alcohol and has recommended that a National Director should lead this move.