Coolamber Manor, a rehabilitation centre offering training and counselling to recovering drug addicts, is one of the few facilities specifically mentioned in the National Drugs Strategy.
No 57 of the 100-action point strategy promises 20 extra rehab places at Coolamber during 2003-2004. Despite this, the Co Longford centre, which has been run on a pilot basis since January last year, faces closure at the end of the year.
"We have funding to December 31st," says its manager, Mary Burkart. "Though we have capacity for 30 people, there are only two here at the moment because the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) has not allowed any referral since February.
"That's fair enough because we run a 12-month programme here and it would be irresponsible to refer people when we only have funding to the end of the year. But it is an awful waste."
Coolamber Manor is a refurbished 18th-century country home on 150 acres of magnificent parkland. Participants in the programme there address the reasons behind their addictions and explore their responsibilities and what they want from life. They get training in horticulture, landscaping, sheep and cattle farming, equestrian skills, woodwork, food and nutrition, IT, literacy, drama, music and sports.
One of the last trainees there this week, Paul Wall (26), from Sandyford, Co Dublin, had been living in a hostel and "using absolutely everything" until the start of this year. He says he had to leave his family home after overdosing on heroin in the bathroom three years ago. Living in a hostel last year he was "getting nothing out of the drugs".
"I had no family around me, my friends were locked up. It was like 'is this the rest of my life?' "
He got a place on a three-week detox programme in Swords and was then referred to Coolamber Manor.
Unable to read or write properly, he has now learnt these skills as well as landscaping and IT. He has a job lined up for the new year and is delighted he made the choice to go to Coolamber.
The programme is delivered by the National Training and Development Institute, the training and education division of The Rehab Group. The cost, at €3,500 per participant per month, "is very competitive", says Burkart, when compared with such rehab facilities as the Rutland Centre in Dublin (€4,000 per participant per month).
It has had 29 referrals, all from the ERHA's catchment area. Though nine of these dropped out, the rest graduated, with most of them having gone on to further training or employment. The hope had been that, at the end of the pilot period, the centre would take referrals from across the State. That hope looks increasingly forlorn this week.
An audit of the programme, commissioned by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, is due for completion in the next month. The Department of Health, which has funded the programme with €1.95 million, is awaiting its findings. A spokeswoman for The Rehab Group says the audit should have been carried out much earlier to avoid the current extreme uncertainty over the programme's future.
She adds: "We really do believe in this programme and want it to continue. The fact is that if it closes, the National Drugs Strategy will be looking around in two years' time to start another [such a programme]."