Tony Geoghegan is stepping down as chief executive of the Merchant's Quay Project, an organisation he co-founded 30 years ago to help drug addicts and homeless people in Dublin.
The focus of the Merchant's Quay Project is on "street homelessness and active drug use - what we try to do is make contact with people and provide pathways into housing and drug treatment for them." Their services are used by around 300 people a day.
Tony had worked with Coolmine and in drug services in London before starting the Merchant's Quay Project. It began in a room at the front of a friary, at a time when Dublin's drug problem "wasn't as explicit as it is now."
He says that while there are now more people using drugs, equally there are more people in treatment, and for this reason "it's not dispiriting."
Although Tony will be leaving his current role, it won't be a straightforward retirement. One of his upcoming projects will be to open the first dedicated injection centre, which he has spent the past 12 years advocating for.
He says he has witnessed a shift in how society looks to deal with drugs. Where it was once believed that a drug problem was always the addict's fault, it's now understood that it can be a direct result of other issues.
He feels that we are doing people a disservice by not putting additional resources into treatment programmes.
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