aldp Our Story

40 Years of community Support

For more than 40 years, Ana Liffey Drug Project has worked alongside people affected by drug use, homelessness and social exclusion across Ireland.

What began as a small community response in Dublin’s North Inner City has grown into one of Ireland’s leading harm reduction organisations — combining frontline support, healthcare, outreach, advocacy and policy leadership with a deeply human approach to care.

1982: Ireland’s first low-threshold harm reduction service

Since being established in 1982 in Dublin’s North Inner City, Ana Liffey Drug Project has provided low-threshold, harm reduction services to people experiencing problem substance use, as well as their families.

Ana Liffey was the first service of its kind in Ireland. Its low-threshold harm reduction model has since been replicated by many organisations across the country.

A different kind of support

Ana Liffey was originally established as an alternative to the dominant abstinence-based approach of the time.

The project created a welcoming space where people who were using drugs could look at their lives, consider their options, and take steps toward positive change in a non-judgemental environment.

From the beginning, the organisation was guided by the principles of:

Respect. Welcome. Participation. Rights.

Those principles still apply today.

Growth and regional expansion

In 1996, Ana Liffey entered a period of transition, moving from the Salvation Army premises at 13 Lower Abbey Street, to 112 Middle Abbey Street, and finally to its current home at 48 Middle Abbey Street in October 2003.

In 2007, services in Dublin expanded further into 51 Middle Abbey Street.

Since 2010, Ana Liffey has worked to expand its services to other regions and now provides support in the Midwest and North East regions, alongside its Dublin services.

The organisation also provides online and digital services, including managing the drugs.ie platform.

Our Structure and Funding

Ana Liffey is structured across a number of teams, each led by a Team Leader.

These include Dublin teams, Assertive Outreach Case Management teams, a Midwest team, and an Online and Digital Services team. These frontline teams are supported by a dedicated back-office and senior management team.

Ana Liffey is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, governed by a Board of Management whose members are directors of the company.

Direct services are almost fully funded by state sources, including the HSE, Local and Regional Drug and Alcohol Task Forces, the Probation Service and Dublin City Council.

International and policy work is supported by the European Commission, Open Society Foundations and the London School of Economics.

Ana Liffey is grateful to all funders for their ongoing support.

A civil society voice in drug policy

Ana Liffey has long provided a strong civil society voice in drug policy in Ireland.

The organisation played an important role in the development of supervised injecting in Ireland and continues to support the adoption of harm-reducing and rehabilitative approaches to possession of drugs for personal use.

Internationally, Ana Liffey is engaged in projects focused on civil society participation in drug policy. It is represented on the Civil Society Forum on Drugs, an expert group to the European Commission, and acts as Ireland’s focal point for Correlation – the European Harm Reduction Network

Ana Liffey is also a member of: