Mr. Daragh Connolly:

There is no correlation whatsoever between the crime levels in pharmacies that dispense methadone and those that do not. There are 1,850 pharmacies in the country and 950, roughly half, dispense methadone. In the majority of these pharmacies, the regular patients do not even know that methadone is dispensed there. In isolated or deprived areas where there are methadone clinics in pharmacies, and where patients interact well with a programme, anecdotal evidence is that petty crime levels are lower because people do not use street drugs.