Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the legislation on supervised injecting facilities introduced by the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne. There has been a demand from the Ana Liffey drugs project and other groups and the drugs task forces, including the one in which I am involved, the canal communities drugs and alcohol task force. They feel it is part of an overall intervention for people who use drugs.

There have been many representations from members of the public in my area, not in any way hostile to the people using heroin, but mainly because in areas such as at the back of the Viking centre, Dublinia, and the green section beside the flats and the school, there is open heroin injection. People are so desperate they literally just drop their trousers and inject themselves. Then the needles are left around the area. There has been huge concern about this for some time. A security officer in the Dublin civic offices who lives in my area has told me about tragic cases of trying to care for people who have overdosed and ambulances having to be called.

This is a pilot scheme. It is certainly worth introducing the legislation and setting up the facility to see how it operates. How will the Garda deal with the issue of carrying drugs to the centre? I expect it will need to establish some sort of policy with the Department of Health and the facility as to how to deal with that. Drug pushers could try to target the area but I think that can be dealt with and obviously that will need to be continually reviewed.

For those who want to inject heroin in a safe confined area, this is worthwhile legislation. We have a big problem with public injection. A recently published report by the UCD school of medicine on urban overdose hotspots found that over a 12-month period, ambulance services attended 469 overdoses in Dublin. The vast majority were concentrated in the city centre and 45% occurred on the street. Just under 90% were taken to hospital and 30 people who overdosed did not make it that far. There is a real need.

I have read articles by journalists who have spoken to heroin users in the centre. Some of them did not know what a medical centre would be - they had not heard about it, while others had. It can play a role as part of an overall strategy that I hope will be supported as regards the national drugs strategy in co-operation with the communities and the task forces. It has been successful in other parts of Europe and elsewhere. I read an article that indicated that in Australia in certain areas they brought in sniffer dogs to try to deal with some issues.

We have to give it a chance to see how it develops. If it is successful hopefully those heroin users will come into the centre and will make contact with other services in the area. I have contact with people involved in a hospital in Ballyfermot where there was a rehabilitation centre. It was closed down and moved to the Simon Communities on the quays. It plays a role in assisting people getting some stability back in their lives. Along with that has to be the long-term hope and vision those people have for themselves of getting a job and becoming responsible in their own right for their own future.

I give the Minister of State my full endorsement for the legislation and will be voting for it. It will be well supported by the drugs task forces.

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