A motion calling on the Eastern Health Board to accept that its policy on methadone stabilisation for long-term drug addicts had failed was passed by just two votes.
Mr Daithi Doolan (Dublin) said we should be striving for a drugs-free community, "not substituting illegal drugs with State-sponsored drugs". Dublin's heroin problem was not a medical one but a social problem which needed to be addressed on that basis.
The motion, which said the policy offered no incentive to addicts to give up their habit, was passed by 41 votes to 39 despite the opposition of a number of ardcomhairle members.