Professor Gerard Bury:

The really supportive role of the gardaí has been mentioned. I would hope the gardaí would support this initiative by offering protection to the users and clients of these services from the potential to be preyed on because a pilot is not without effect. It does not happen in isolation and the wholehearted support of the gardaí in protecting this clientèle is really important.

We have mentioned road accidents. In 2013 the Road Safety Authority had a budget of €40 million to effect road safety across the State. I can find no such ring-fenced budget allocated to the prevention of death from drug dependency, even for those who were in the care of the State at the time. Mention was made of an 18 year old being made to carry a criminal record for the rest of his life. Let us deal effectively with young people who are vulnerable. He does not need to carry methadone on his back for the rest of his life either. We must offer people an opportunity to normalise their lives as they would if they were insulin-dependent diabetics by the use of appropriate drug therapies to stabilise their lives. Just as a diabetic does not sort out his or her problems with insulin alone, all the other necessary supports have to be offered.

I have been attending approximately 100 cardiac arrests a year in Dublin over the past year or two. I have been at three deaths in the past ten days or two weeks involving drug users who died at home. This is not just a street use problem. I am not convinced that some of these people did not intend to end their lives because of the arrangements they had made. It is most sad to see someone with a needle still stuck in his arm.

The committee wanted a human perspective but I would not dream of imposing on it the horror that goes with some of those situations. Sounds are what stick with me, the distress of families on finding their loved one in these circumstances is appalling and the sound of that distress is awful. The second sound I ask the committee to think about is phones. People's phones always go off: who is going to pick it up? Who is going to answer it? We do not but the committee can imagine in that situation the horror that faces the person who is ringing.

Reactive care is what gets a lot of us into medicine, the idea that we will fix things and see an instant improvement. I appeal to the committee to push forward with its very well-founded initiative on the injecting rooms for that purpose but ask also that it consider the overdose-related issues. I am currently paying to dispose of €2,000 worth of out of date Naloxone. A simple change in regulations would enable us to do this better. Recovery needs to be part of our initiative as well as reaction to the crises and the horrors we have described. I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak to it.