The number of heroin users presenting for treatment outside the greater Dublin area increased more than four-fold between 1998 and 2002, according to a new report by the Health Research Board (HRB).
The board said the latest statistics underlined the need for the expansion of treatment services for chronic drug users in the regions.
Fine Gael yesterday called on the Government to immediately increase funding for treatment services, accusing Minister Noel Ahern, who is responsible for the national drugs strategy, of being non-committal on the issue.
Mr Ahern said the four-fold increase in the number of users in treatment "does not equate to a similar increase in actual heroin use".
"A few years ago we had very few services for addicts outside Dublin. That has changed now, so it stands to reason that there are going to be more people in treatment," he told The Irish Times.
He said there was "very little new" in the latest statistics. Estimates in 2002 revealed there were 12,500 heroin addicts in Dublin and 2,200 elsewhere in the State. These figures had remained stable for much of the last decade. More funding would be made available to regional drugs task forces in the next six months.
The new data reveals there are now heroin addicts in treatment in every county in the country apart from Sligo and Leitrim.
The board believes the low numbers reported in treatment in the west of the country is attributable to under-reporting rather than the absence of a heroin problem in those areas.
Carlow has emerged as the worst affected county outside the greater Dublin region; defined for the purposes of the study as Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare.
According to the research there were 21.2 heroin users per 100,000 population in Carlow between 1998 and 2002, compared with 9.7 per 100,000 between 1996 and 2000.
Counties Meath, Louth and Cavan all saw large increases in the numbers in treatment between 1998 and 2002 (see map). There was also a large demand for services in counties Cork, Longford and Roscommon.
Across the Republic, the numbers presenting for heroin treatment increased sharply, from 2 per 100,000 to 8.3 per 100,000 between 1998 and 2002.
Dr Jean Long, a senior researcher in the drugs misuse research division of the HRB, said the rise in the numbers in treatment was attributable to greater access to services and an increase in the numbers of people using heroin.
She said while estimates in 2002 indicated there were around 2,300 heroin users outside the greater Dublin area, a more up to date estimate was not available.
"I suspect that the heroin problem in Dublin has stabilised (at around 12,000 addicts), and that a lot of people are now using cocaine. Outside Dublin I would think people in the communities will tell you there has been an increase in the levels of heroin use. It would not be the same as the problem in Dublin in the 1990s, but is probably similar to the mid to late 1980s."
Mr Fergus O'Dowd TD, Fine Gael's spokesman on community affairs, said Minister Ahern was "offering cold comfort".
"By assuring the public that the regional drugs task forces are examining these problems the Minister is failing to recognise that areas such as Carlow, Wicklow, Louth, Meath, Longford and Westmeath, where this problem is most severe, cannot afford to wait for the task forces to report."
