STAFF AT DRUG CENTRE REFUSE TO ANSWER PHONES

Staff at the Drug Treatment Centre Board are refusing to answer the
telephone at Trinity Court, the board's Dublin headquarters, in what is
being described as limited industrial action.

The Pearse Street treatment centre was operating yesterday, with addicts
attending for methadone prescriptions and counselling. However, staff have
refused to answer the telephones so that anyone seeking an appointment is
unable to do so by phone.

Staff at the centre refused to comment, saying the chief executive was
unavailable to explain the situation.

A spokesman for the Health Service Employers' Agency, the State agency
responsible for the board, said it was unclear what had caused the dispute.

Five hundred and thirty addicts are registered for methadone treatment at
the centre, which also houses a separate Eastern Health Board-run clinic on
its fourth floor.

Last year local traders took a High Court action against the board to try to
cap the number of addicts treated there. The traders complained that
assaults, robberies and violent attacks had increased in the area as a
result of the centre's activities.

Checked-by: Don Beck