Mr. Justin Kelly:

I thank the Senator for the questions. As she rightly said, from when I joined in 1992 to today, the approach that we take to these very unfortunate individuals, that is, those leading such chaotic lifestyles, has evolved beyond comprehension. To answer that question directly, in Limerick we have moved on from a pilot scheme and currently have Garda officers on the front line with mental health professionals attending calls in the one vehicle. As I said, we are trying to bring that humane approach towards the individuals we deal with. For us, there are many challenges around people who use drugs, particularly the ones who have real problems with that. As for the public order situations with which our front-line officers are dealing, particularly with cocaine, we are seeing aggression at levels that I would not have seen when I was on the front line. Even those four areas that I spoke about show our commitment to doing things differently to how we did them before.

I will not delay too long but to choose one of those areas, we have been supportive of the supervised injection facility that is hopefully to come soon. That is a very complex area for us to police. As members can imagine, there are going to be drug addicts in possession of drugs that are currently illegal. They are going to be going to that facility. How we deal with that will be to take a nuanced approach to it. The chief superintendent and superintendent in that area have had regular meetings with Merchants Quay. It is exactly the same with the festivals. At the festivals, as we know, people are in possession of controlled drugs that are illegal and we had to do a lot of work to get over the perception that we were going to be waiting outside those tents and try to arrest people. We have done a lot of work and I note Dr. Eamon Keenan from the HSE has been before the committee previously. Examples like that, however, show how we are trying to evolve. At senior management level the Commissioner, myself and the other members of the senior leadership team are trying to push through many things organisationally. Naloxone is one members have heard of. The Chair is very familiar with it. That is another thing we are trying to get across the line. All these things are complex, however.