The public needs to face up to the reality of homelessness and the problem of drug abuse if it wants to respond effectively, a spokeswoman for Merchants Quay Ireland said.
As the first annual conference on homelessness and drug abuse drew to a close today, Ms Aisling Crawford said the State needed to accept that it will never have a drug-free society. Instead it should concentrate on developing realistic policies if it wants to reduce drug-related problems and the level of homelessness.
Recent figures show there are up to 15,000 drug users in the greater Dublin area. It is estimated that homelessness affects at least 10,000 people in the Republic.
"The public cannot stick its head in the sand. The problems are here to stay, it is time to deal with reality," Ms Crawford said.
Ms Crawford said the two-day event held in Dublin Castle provided a networking facility for practitioners and policy-makers, and a platform to address the separate but related issues of homelessness and drug use.
Today's speakers included Clinical Services Manager at Sydney Medical Supervised Injecting Centre in Australia, Ms Collette McGrath, Mr Bill Edgar of the European Observatory on Homelessness, and Mr Tim Murphy from the Department of Law at UCC.