Drug scheme struggles after funding ends

Rehabilitation programmes for drug addicts at Coolamber Manor in Longford have stopped after the centre was refused further funding…

Rehabilitation programmes for drug addicts at Coolamber Manor in Longford have stopped after the centre was refused further funding.

Interim funding of €750,000, provided by the Department of Health in July 2004, ran out in December.

There are no residents at the national training and development institute, which specialises in the treatment and rehabilitation of drug users, since the last programme finished there in December.

Centre director Mary Burkart, who has already let most of the 22 staff go, remains committed to finding an alternative source of funding for the centre, which costs about €1.5 million a year to run.

READ MORE

But she admits that if it is not found within a few months, they will have to give up, and the historic house and grounds may be put up for sale.

At present they are looking at the Department of Justice and Health Service Executive areas outside Dublin to see if there might be other avenues.

Coolamber Manor, Lisryan, near Granard, has been used as a drug rehabilitation centre since 2003. In its two years of existence the centre took on 29 clients, 20 of whom completed the programme, with an average stay of eight months.

Ms Burkart said she was "disappointed for the staff" and although the centre was selling stock, they were trying to keep as much as possible in case they "get going again". Whether it had any chance of ever starting up again would be known within three months, she added.

There was a lot of pressure, Ms Burkart said, to maximise the use of the centre, which is on 150 acres and owned by the Rehab group.

While the midterm critical implementation review of the National Drug Strategy includes Coolamber Manor as part of its brief, it did not fund the centre.

Ms Burkart said the decision to discontinue funding to Coolamber by the three main health boards in Dublin, who had been the main source of referrals for the centre, was a surprise.

While they knew funding had not come through, management were told that a final decision would come after an audit of financing of the centre.

Despite what Ms Burkart described as a "satisfactory" audit, they received a letter from the Health Service Executive in February saying no money would be forthcoming.

However, Ms Burkart insisted this was not "the end of the story" for Coolamber.

"We know there is a need for programmes of this type and we'll be continuing to look at every other possible avenue," she said.

In July of last year, the last funding from the Department of Health was received for the centre.

Ms Burkart said at the time she had "verbal assurances" that funding for Coolamber would be mainstreamed in the 2005 budget.