Addiction Support Network (FASN) presented before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs. They brought to light the urgent need for meaningful support for families living in the shadow of addiction — a voice too often ignored in policy debates.
They opened with these words:
“Chairperson, Members of the Oireachtas,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. We represent the Family Addiction Support Network, or FASN, which operates across the northeast — including Louth, Meath, Cavan, and Monaghan.FASN supports families who are affected by a loved one’s substance use, gambling, or related addiction. We are a peer-led, trauma-informed, community-based organisation, and we work at the coalface of Ireland’s addiction crisis — with the people who are too often invisible in policy and service design: the families.”
They went on to stress that addiction is a “family disease”, not simply an individual issue. Because for every person struggling with addiction, there are multiple family members bearing emotional, financial, relational, and sometimes safety consequences. They cited national figures (e.g. from HRB NDTRS) and academic estimates that suggest tens to hundreds of thousands of family members are affected across Ireland — estimates that may understate reality due to under-reporting.
They highlighted the chronic underfunding of family support: despite growing demand, less than 3% of national drugs strategy funding is directed to family support services. Many regions have no dedicated services at all.
Gwen and Cindy also laid out what FASN actually does (and why it works) — and why it is at breaking point:
Peer-led family support groups
One-to-one support, crisis intervention
Training on drug trends, trauma, coping strategies
Advocacy with treatment, social, judicial services
Bereavement support for families who have lost loved ones
They revealed key activity data for mid-May to December 2024 :
• 1,356 individual attendances
• 225 five-step interventions
• 126 helpline calls
• 176 one-to-one direct supports
• 39 participants across four 10-week “Rise” education programmes
• 336 counselling sessions
• 15 Affected Family Members on Respite/Wellness weekends
They called this a preventive investment — far less costly than hospital admissions, prison stays, or social breakdown — and warned that without sustained, ring-fenced funding, services will have to shrink even as demand surges.
They urged the Committee to move decisively on:
Ring-fenced funding for family support under the national drugs strategy
Full integration of family supports throughout the addiction treatment pathway
Adoption of a trauma-informed, whole-family model nationwide
Recognition of family members as key stakeholders and improved, comprehensive data collection (e.g. in the NDTRS)
As they closed:
“Addiction may start with one person, but it does not end there. Families live with the ripple effects for years — and they often carry the weight alone. … Chair, Members — we urge you to ensure families are no longer the forgotten stakeholders in addiction policy.”
During the same session, the Committee also heard from several other organisations:
Coolmine (Anita Harris) — raising the dearth of services for children and for fathers affected by parental substance use
Northstar Family Support Project (Joe Slattery) — describing fear, stigma, complex needs, and threats from drug dealers within families
FARI (Michael Mason – Family Addiction Recovery Ireland) and Uisce (Andy O’Hara)— both sharply criticising their exclusion from the steering process for the next National Drugs Strategy
Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign — also raising objections to the sidelining of community and lived-experience voices
Media coverage of the session emphasised that FASN was among those “excluded from consultation on the next National Drugs Strategy,” despite doing essential frontline work in the community.
We at FASN also submitted a full report to the Committee, detailing how addiction impacts families across the North East (Louth, Meath, Cavan, Monaghan) and documenting the full breadth of support services we currently provide.
This is a pivotal moment. Families have long borne the hidden toll of addiction — it’s time their experiences, needs, and solutions are central to policy, funding, and service design.
A special note of thanks goes to our FASN team members, Jackie McKenna and Robert McKevitt, for their dedicated work in preparing and submitting the report to the Oireachtas.
