Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I imagine it would be for any sort of holistic needs assessment or safety-net service. Hopefully, it is people who are equipped and well used to working within the hostel services who would staff these facilities, such as anyone training under those like Dr. Austin O'Carroll and Dr. Fiona O'Reilly. The assessment when people first access the service should not rely on their being registered in order to use it. There should be a process whereby a user of the service is registered somehow with that service in order to provide that continuum of care.

I am not sure whether the term "authorised user" implies that people need to somehow authorise that they are going to use the service at a specific time or whether they just become regular users of the facility. While "authorised user" might be a strange term to use, a person should somehow be registered with the facility. It would also come into play if somebody was arrested on his or her way to use the facility. The fact he or she is a registered user of an injecting room could come into play in that there would be a way to find out if he or she is a registered user of the facility so he or she would not be arrested.

I have several concerns that I wanted to flag. Do the witnesses believe there is potential for needle exchanges around Dublin to be impacted in any way? I know the struggle of the harm reduction workers in the community sector to keep a constant flow of needles into the suburbs of Dublin city for people who are using in places like Tallaght and the canal communities. It is very difficult to keep that ongoing supply coming from the HSE. Do the witnesses foresee any form of backlash in the sense that people will be encouraged to use the facility whereas the supply of needles to harm reduction workers outside Dublin city will be minimised? Will this have any impact on people who do not want to come into the city centre to use, but still want to use within their own communities?

I have a question in regard to Professor Bury's point on overdose deaths, although it is slightly off the topic. Have the witnesses heard of the new naloxone spray product which will come on stream in 2017? What are their thoughts on that being accessible within all services, particularly the injecting rooms, and whether it will be taken up by Ireland? I do not know about the costs involved.

Do many women access needle exchanges? Accessing services can be difficult for women in the first instance, especially if they are mothers. In light of the fears around that, I am curious to know if they do.

Professor Bury might be able to explain the position regarding the GMS contract. This is something I am pursuing in respect of methadone and the attempt to move all stable methadone users out of the clinics, out of Trinity Court, and into their doctors' surgeries. However, we need it to be written into the GMS contract that their own GPs cannot refuse to prescribe methadone, just as they would not refuse to prescribe diabetic medication, so we can free up some of the services within the city centre and make them better equipped to deal with the more chaotic users.