THE Eastern Health Board is going ahead with plans to move 29 psychiatric patients from their home in central Dublin to make way for a drug addiction treatment centre.
The patients live at Weir Home, Cork Street. The EHB plans to turn it into a drug clinic, by September despite local opposition.
Members of the Cork Street and Maryland Residents' Association say the patients are happy at the home and do not want to be moved to other areas. They also fear that the transformation of Weir Home will attract large numbers of drug addicts into the area and that crime will increase.
An association spokesman said that after a series of meetings with the EHB, the board had rejected alternatives suggested by the residents, including the introduction of a mobile clinic which would stop at Cork Street for specified periods.
The EHB equipped a van as a mobile clinic six weeks ago but it has not yet been brought into service.
On Friday the EHB said moving the patients would be "carded out as sensitively as possible to ensure that all patients are content and happy in their new homes".
It said the "exact role of the new centre, and how it will function as part of the overall services in the area, is being worked out at present in consultation with local community interests. No final decisions have yet been taken."
The board added that it had been recruiting staff for four community drug teams in the surrounding area, and local doctors were also being recruited for a pilot scheme to supply methadone to addicts.