Employers urged to give jobs to former addicts

Employers will be encouraged to employ former heroin users as part of an awareness and fund-raising campaign announced in Dublin yesterday. The Merchants Quay Project - the largest voluntary drug counselling centre in the State - in conjunction with SIPTU and the employers organisation IBEC, launched the resource pack Drugs At Work which is aimed at employers and unions.

Its purpose is to help them to identify the symptoms of drug misuse and to provide information on how to encourage employees who are abusing drugs to seek help. The project helped over 2,000 addicts last year.

SIPTU president Mr Des Geraghty said employers and unions must play their part in combating drug abuse. "However, our aim," he said, "should be prevention and care, not obstruction." Mr Brendan Butler, social policy director at IBEC, supported the appeal to employers to consider employing former heroin abusers.

"There are two levels to our support for this initiative," he said. "There's the broad social responsibility aspect but also, with the difficulties employers are having recruiting staff, they are going to have to be prepared to do things that they might not have been a few years ago."

The Merchants Quay Project is also appealing to businesses for funding for its work. The project's director, Mr Tony Geoghegan, said their support was needed "to address the problem in the workplace" and "on the streets".

Anyone wishing to make a donation can do so by contacting the project at (01) 679 0044.