Ms Niamh Eastwood:

In the context of the testing of drugs, there is obviously the great work of the Loop in the UK and Australia but I would highlight WEDINOS as well. I am not sure how much the committee knows about the Welsh drug testing system, which, essentially, has been running for ten years. People can send their samples to the service and they get their results within a week. People knowing what is in their drugs is a really important harm-reduction intervention. In the UK, the restrictions very much relate to home office licences. I would encourage the Department of Health in Ireland to ensure that licences are as flexible as possible. There is no reason we should not have these in youth community centres and drug treatment centres. We need to get these into as many spaces as possible. There can be different models where there is more basic equipment on site. The results produced by this can be checked by a lab that has more sophisticated equipment in a confirmatory way. It does not have to be that expensive.