On 24 June 2013 the Ballymun Youth Action Project (BYAP) hosted a seminar on responding to addiction in a time of recession. The purpose of the seminar was to provide an opportunity to step back and think about the experience of the impact of funding cutbacks, and the implications for this particular sector. Róisín Shortall, T.D., described the seminar as providing a ‘critical space’ to reflect on what amounts to a slow dismantling of the safety net that has been created within local communities, leading to the re-marginalisation of particular areas. The seminar was attended by over 80 representatives of community and voluntary agencies, funders, local people and political representatives. There were two speakers – Brian Harvey, an independent social research consultant, and Dr Mary Ellen McCann, lecturer in UCD’s School of Applied Social Science and former director of Ballymun Youth Action Project.
