Report on Rapid expert review of the National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016 in Ireland

This report contains the findings from a rapid review of the Irish National Drug Strategy (INDS). The review is primarily based on site visits and meetings conducted during an intensive week long study visit. During the visit the panel met with over 150 individuals, including governmental officials, statutory and voluntary sector service providers, community members and service users. Although meetings took place only in Dublin and Cork, the panel also met people with responsibility for, or with knowledge of, the situation in other locations. The panel also considered some additional contextual documentary evidence and all those attending interviews were invited to submit additional evidence in written form. These submissions were also taken into consideration in drafting the views expressed in this paper. A list of the organisations that contributed to the review, either through participation in meetings or by providing submissions to the review panel, often both, is provided in Annex A. In many cases we saw several representatives of these organisations with different responsibilities or geographical remits.

The Rapid Expert Review (RER) was designed to provide a top-level overview of the strategy to inform the work of the Steering Group tasked with developing the new strategy. As such, it presents insights useful for framing the ongoing strategy development work, but is not intended as a formal evaluation of the outgoing strategy. The terms of reference for the rapid expert review panel work can be found in Annex B. Put simply, the review is intended to inform the development of the next National Drug Strategy by providing a ‘helicopter view’ of and capturing some key learning points from the experiences of the National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016. In doing this the panel members hope to provide useful input to facilitate the development of the new strategy whilst recognising that the responsibility and expertise necessary for undertaking that exercise lies elsewhere.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.