For Merchants Quay Ireland 2003 proved to be yet another very busy year. In our drugs services we saw almost 4,000 individual drug users, of whom over six hundred were new presenters. We also worked more than one thousand homeless people meeting basic needs for food, social support, and basic health care and supporting people to access a bed for the night or permanent accommodation. This level of continued problem drug use and homelessness is a clear indication that the situation is extremely serious.

While the development of the National Drug Strategy and the Homeless Action Plans has made an impact on these problems, serious deficits in service provision remain to be addressed