‘It’s a slap in the face for Drogheda’ – Red Door Project lose funding for vital drugs court service

By Olivia Ryan, The Drogheda Independent

The vital restorative justice and drugs liaison work of the Red Door Project is being “ripped out of Drogheda,” it was claimed this week.

The Red Door Project is a community-based organisation that was founded in Drogheda in 2010 as a response to the growing issues of drug and alcohol abuse in the town and surrounding areas.

Since then it has developed extensively, and has been working directly with the Probation Service, providing a Drug Treatment Court Liaison Support Worker and a Prison Links Worker.

“We have been doing this work for many, many years, and have developed a wealth of expertise in this area,” said Louise Mahony, General Manager at the Red Door Project.

"We work locally on a trust basis, with people who may be involved in a lot of criminal activity, and we have cultivated a very particular way of working, which includes a good partnership with gardai and the Probation Service.”

She said the project has worked with hundreds of people, and their families, providing not only a support service, but also a direct referral from the courts and probation service.

"It involves writing probation reports, but also deals with the difficult work of supporting people who are going into prison and those coming out of prison.

"It is very important work. It is very trust based. People come to the Red Door because they know it, and we are well known in the local community.”

She added that efforts to “mainstream” this work were welcomed, and the project had submitted an expression of interest for funding to the national community probation team.

"It was our understanding that we were in line for this funding as we have already been doing this work, very successfully, for so long,” added Louise.

But, in the last few days they have learned the funding will instead be directed to a Dublin based organisation.

Louise said that there has been “huge disappointment that this funding is being ripped out of Drogheda.”

"Drogheda is losing all of the good work that has been poured in to a Dublin organisation that does not have any links with the community here. They are a very good service, but they do not have the local expertise our staff have developed over many years.”

She added: “I know the new service will have to make this work, but it will not be the same. The people we have on the ground working closely with probation team and gardai for so many years, that work will change now. I fell the connectivity and networking will be lost."

Louth Labour TD Ged Nash described the failure of the Red Door project to secure the funding to deliver restorative justice services locally, as a ‘slap in the face’ for Drogheda.

“The fact that funding was awarded to an albeit well-established and highly regarded organisation based in Dublin frankly beggars belief, when we have a professional, trusted body like Red Door who has been doing this work with at-risk and vulnerable people in our community who are engaging with the justice system for many years, begs question of government decision-making processes.

“I am all for transparent processes, but it seems when it comes to the awarding of funding, direct experience in a community like Drogheda, and where trust and confidence has been built up between a service and their staff, and at-risk people, seems to count for nothing when it comes to the box-ticking bureaucrats who make these decisions.

“The on-the-ground experience they have and the respect the Red Door service commands from service-users, the HSE and all other agencies, did not appear to be factored in to an inflexible process in this case.

“Instead, a group with zero contact with our community will now enter the scene in respect of the restorative justice programme, while Red Door has worked with great success and in partnership with others in the Drugs Court Initiative since 2018.

“As the initial architect of the idea of the Guerin Review and the Task Force/Drogheda Implementation Board concept, it is clear to me that decisions like this directly contradict and in fact undo the work done during the lifetime of that process.

“The final report of the DIB, published earlier this year, made it clear that localised, relationship-based support was key to reducing drug harm and recidivism in our community. It seems that no sooner had the Implementation Board been wound down, that Departments and agencies have now turned their backs on the group’s work, and achievements.

“I have raised this issue with the Minister for Justice and I have requested that alternative funding is made available to Red Door to allow it to continue with this element of its invaluable work.”