Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted that the Minister of State has stated categorically that he intends, with the Minister for Health, to submit a proposal to the Government before Christmas. That is most welcome and it is great to see some action being taken on the matter. The sooner it happens, the better. It is welcome that a provision for supervised injecting centres will be included in the Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill. The Minister of State is correct in saying there are other areas of the country besides Dublin which would welcome centres of this nature and this should be taken into consideration by the Government. It must, of course, be done with public consultation because there is something of a stigma attached to drug abuse. We must ensure we treat this as a health issue rather than as something that inspires fear in communities. There is important work to be done to reassure people in this respect.

This is a very welcome development. It is certainly not a panacea and we must ensure adequate resources are put in place to make it work and that it will not affect existing resources. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

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