Mr. Eugene Lennon:

On the policing issue, Dr. Keenan, the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, and I travelled to Denmark last week to see how drug consumption rooms work there. We visited one of the newer centres in Copenhagen, saw how it all worked and spoke to senior people in the Ministry of Health and the people running the centre. They stressed that for such centres to be successful, there must be a partnership between the health authorities, police authorities and, in this case, city authorities, with most of the services being delivered through the municipalities. The director of the centre noted that police officers walk in once a day to have a look around and this does not seem to cause any particular problems for anybody. Indeed, it offers an element of reassurance for members of the wider community, some of whom had concerns about an injecting centre operating in their midst. Part of the reassurance given to the community was that police officers would be able visit the centre regularly and ensure everything is okay. It is a low-key look-around.

Some analysis has been done on how things are working in Denmark. The document is in Danish but the centre staff gave us a summary in English. The analysis shows that while there were concerns before some of the centres opened, there was generally a reduction in public nuisance incidents in the relevant areas once the services were up and running. In the part of Copenhagen we visited, the data show there have been fewer call-outs to the police following the opening of the injecting centre. The health-led approach being taken with the setting up of these centres seems to be leading to a win-win situation, with benefits for the drug users availing of the service, reduced demand for police resources and a positive outcome for the community in terms of reduced crime rates.

Regarding the concept of an authorised user, as set out in head 1, it is not the intention that people will have to register in advance. In the injection centres we have looked at abroad, there is a quick registration process for first-time users. We are conscious that these are people detached from the system, who often live chaotic lives and do not engage generally with authorities. In some countries they ask for a nickname and a year of birth but there is nobody checking up on that information. Each time a user presents at a centre and gives the name Jonathan 1984, for example, that will be recorded, along with the drug the person is using. This allows staff to track users' drug use through the system.

In regard to the proposed evaluation process, the intention is that all the data will be anonymised. The objective is not to create and maintain a register that will be handed over to anybody. The people in this room today are generally very open to the idea of injecting centres, but there are people in the broader society who have concerns. If we are to run a pilot service, we will have to justify any decision to go for a second or third centre. We must be able to offer a robust evaluation of any such proposal. From what we have seen of the studies on centres abroad, they do stand up and there are benefits both for drug users and the wider community. We hope the same will apply in Ireland but we will have to provide robust evidence to back up our arguments. The Minister has managed to secure some funding for next year, but if we are to acquire further funding, we must be able to provide an evaluation which shows the service is working well in co-operation with the various authorities.