Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Senator Ruane touched on the issue I wanted to raise, namely, head 10, which gives the Garda powers to enter without a warrant for the prevention or detection of offences. I presume the goal of all of those present - members of the Garda, Department officials, Senators or Deputies - is to get to a position where we have a facility in which drug users can safely inject and where, if they overdose, there is help on hand. People from different backgrounds will have different priorities in that regard but I strongly agree with Senator Ruane. If we start the conversation in this room, it will seep out into the wider public. If the conversations we are having in this room are about being able to police these facilities, users will not access them. That is a reality, regardless of whether we like it.

We talk about the interests of the Garda being about the sale and supply of drugs, yet over 86% of all drug convictions are for personal use. Those are the figures we need to examine when we talk about safe injection centres. Users will not use a facility if they know that the person coming in behind them might be a member of the Garda drug squad. Regardless of how good the intentions may be on the part of the Garda, the reality is that those to whom I refer will not use these facilities and we will not solve the issue as a result. As I said in the previous session, we cannot have it both ways in terms of moving to a public health model from a criminal justice model. If we are talking about drug users accessing a facility, they need to be able to do that in the knowledge that when they do it there will be no legal comebacks.

There are issues to do with the legislation that we need to examine. Eventually, we will have to move to a model of decriminalisation for personal use. It is proposed in head 9 that it would be lawful to be in possession of a controlled substance while in a facility but if someone steps two feet outside a facility, it will be unlawful to be in possession of that controlled substance. That is the law we are dealing with because we are not having the wider discussion on decriminalisation for personal use. We are trying to deal with a public health issue but we are not having the debate about moving away from a criminal justice issue. We are riding both horses at the same time and the only people who will suffer are the users.

Many people know my personal situation. My brother is 11 months clean and is doing extremely well, but he has four drug convictions for personal use. We talk about criminalising people for life. We talk about people being on methadone for life but a situation should not arise where someone is on methadone for life. Someone who is a chronic drug user should not end up with a lifetime of convictions for personal use. If there are cases where individuals are trying to use these facilities for the sale and supply of controlled substances, by all means that is an issue for An Garda Síochána. I will put the question to the assistant commissioner. Under what circumstances would he envisage members of the force having to enter these facilities? Can we tease out the discussion that way? If there is not a telephone call from the centre to say a crime is being committed within the facility or if somebody telephones to say they are just about to eject someone because he or she is trying to sell drugs within the facility, under what circumstances would the assistant commissioner envisage a member of the force having to enter one of these facilities and for what purpose?

I refer to head 7, which provides for a licence holder to be required to supply such information as may reasonably be required for the purpose of evaluating supervised injecting centres. I presume the legislation will be organisation specific in terms of who will have access to that information for the purpose of evaluation. I am not suggesting for one moment that it will be open-ended but I have concerns about head 1 and the officials from the Department might explain the rationale behind it.

To clarify what I said in the first session, I wrote in my notes that I would oppose the advance registration of users. I have no issue with people who access this facility, and there is some sort of database for that continuous care, but they have to be on an advance register to even access the facility. I do not see the rationale for that. We have situations where people who would not be on a register suffer a relapse. I have to leave shortly to raise a Topical Issue matter in the Dáil but I would like to know if it is the case that people would not be able to use these facilities unless they were on an advance register or is it the case that once they access the facilities they go into the system. If that is the case that is a different matter, but that is not clear from the head. I ask for clarification on that.

I do not want to come across as if I am being critical of the Garda. The force is doing tremendous work in trying to combat the sale and supply of drugs and target individuals who are involved in the illicit drug trade, and everyone will support those activities. I am talking about the users from a public health point of view. If they are accessing a facility and they know that a member of the force can walk in the door behind them, we are lessening the chance of them using that facility. We are not addressing the very reason we are establishing these safe injecting areas, which is to enable people to have a safe place in which to inject. The assistant Garda commissioner might comment on that.