Fr McVerry to address conference

FR. Peter McVerry, the well-known campaigner on behalf of the homeless and people whose lives are affected by drug addiction, will be the guest speaker at a Drugs, Crime and Social Exclusion conference in County Wexford.

The conference organised by County Wexford Local Drug and Alcohol Task Force and sponsored by Wexford Local Development, will be held in the Amber Springs Hotel, Gorey on Saturday, September 1 from 9am to 1.30pm with lunch included.

Declan McPartlin, chairman of the multi-agency Drugs Task Force, said the conference aims to highlight the problems associated with substance abuse, both drugs and alcohol, in County Wexford, and will discuss how best to repond to the challenges caused by them.

Members of the Task Force include the HSE, An Garda Siochana, the Probation Service, Customs and Excise, Wexford Family Support Service and voluntary and community organisations that offer addiction services in Wexford.

‘It is vital to keep abreast of best practice in responding to the challenges that our communities face in dealing with substance misuse and that is why we have invited expert speakers such as Fr. McVerry and Tony Geoghegan of Merchants Quay Ireland to address the conference’, said Mr. McPartlin.

Brian Kehoe, CEO of Wexford Local Development will talk about the importance of having a holistic approach tindealing with the issues faced by communities. Paul Delaney of the Cornmarket Project, a treatment and rehabiliation service in Wexford, said the conference is being held at a time when there has been a large increase in the number of young people using what are often referred to as new psychoactive substances. ‘These dangerous drugs, easily sourced from the internet, are a relatively new phenomenon in County Wexford and are having a devastating impact on the young people who take them and also on their families’, he said. To contact the conference organising office, email ddillon@cornmarketproject.com or telephone 0539155817.