Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will speak in a similar vein. I have not been a participant in the debates on this Bill to date but I am very supportive of the legislation. I believe it is a significant step forward in a progressive direction to have supervised injecting facilities and to try to create a safer environment for people with addiction problems in which to inject. I would not support any amendment that would cast doubt over the value of moving in this direction rather than having things driven underground into parks, alleyways, subways or wherever it is. However, I do not think that is the purpose of this amendment. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that we discuss this on a regular basis, see how it is going, monitor it closely and try to improve things as we go along. We are entering, for this country at least, into new territory, and it is good territory as far as I am concerned. It is territory that brings something out of the shadows, acknowledges the reality of it and tries to address it. I believe it is a sensible amendment.

It might set a precedent for other debates of a similar nature that we are going to have in the next few weeks on the question of medicinal cannabis. I know that in that area, the Government and possibly some others in the Opposition are going to express concern about potential implications and knock-on and spill-over effects, as they might see it, of decriminalising medicinal cannabis. I do not share those concerns, but if, as I hope, the medicinal cannabis Bill passes, I suspect that the Government and those who have those concerns will propose an amendment just like this one and state that the House will need to constantly review matters to see what the impact, efficacy, benefits and shortcomings of it are. I think that is a sensible approach. It would therefore be inconsistent for the Government to oppose this amendment and to then, very likely, make the opposite argument in a few weeks' time when we come to debate another area of decriminalisation around particular drugs, during which the Government will argue for caution, monitoring and so on and so forth.

I think the Minister should seriously consider this amendment and accept it. There is nothing to lose. There are no dangers in this. It is just a sensible measure to ensure that this issue stays in focus and that we move from this positive step on a trajectory of making things better over time to address the reality of what is a fact of our society, that is, the injection of these drugs. I hope the Government will accept the amendment. Aside from the Government's concerns, everybody else in the House seems to share that view.

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