A charity that works with homeless people and drug users has expressed serious concern about the impact of ongoing cuts to social services.

According to Merchant's Quay Ireland (MQI), demand for its services is growing, ‘yet finances are contracting'.

The charity made its comments at the launch of its 2012 Annual Review. According to the review, MQI's needle exchange service in Dublin recorded 20,857 client visits last year - a jump of almost 2,000 visits when compared with 2011.

A total of 3,634 people accessed the needle exchange programme last year, of which over 550 were new clients.

Polydrug use - the use of more than one drug - continues to be a big issue, with three in four users of the needle exchange service admitting to the use of multiple substances.

The most common combination of drugs used by people accessing MQI's drug services last year were heroin, benzodiazepines and alcohol.

The charity also noted an increase in drug use outside of Dublin. For example, one in four admissions to its residential facility, St Francis Farm Detox Unit in Carlow, came from the Munster region, while almost one in three admissions to the unit's drug rehabilitation programme came from the south east.

Meanwhile, the charity's homeless food service provided over 76,500 meals last year, while its primary healthcare service for homeless people made more than 3,300 client interventions.

According to MQI, these figures ‘are very strong indications of the increasing levels of poverty and hardship experienced by so many people'.

"Looking to the future MQI, like all other voluntary organisations, is deeply concerned about the ongoing cuts to social services. Demand for our homeless and drugs services is growing, yet finances are contracting.

"We call on the Government to honour their commitment to social justice and maintain services that protect the most vulnerable men and women in Ireland," commented MQI chief executive, Tony Geoghegan.