Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to pick up on one or two points that have been made. I share Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan's concerns about communities that have been loaded in the past with facilities compared with other communities. The direction of this supervised injection centre is all about where the need is greater. That is why the HSE and the Department are engaged in a mapping process to try to identify where people are injecting and where people have left litter. When the legislation comes into force, that will help to identify where exactly the location should be and will give those who are going to provide the service a real insight into where the centre should be located. I certainly share some of Deputy O'Sullivan's concerns. I hope that when the legislation is approved and when the people are ready to provide the service, it will be possible to consider many of these concerns during the consultation. Where the need is greater, the services will be allocated.

I wish to pick up on something that Deputy Ó Snodaigh said. Deputy Ó Snodaigh knows a lot about this Bill, like a lot of Members here.

We do not anticipate there being a honey pot effect. It does not happen in other countries and we are taking on board the experiences of other countries. People are not attracted from far and wide but rather it deals with people in the location of the facility.

The supervised needle injection facility is all about a health-lead approach. It has to be, for those chronic people who are coming in off the street. They are probably not in any other service, but as part of the service there will be doctors, nurses and clinical staff there, and there will be people able to forward users into other services. That is the whole idea of this service. It gives an opportunity to chronic users to be able to build up trust in the centre with the staff and to be able then if they wish to go further into their recovery. That is what we all want as legislators. A crucial part of the supervised injection service is that we have a wraparound service around it. Otherwise I do not believe it will work.

Regarding the amendment, I am advised that the amendment offered would not achieve what the Deputy intends. The two yearly review of the legislation, rather than the outcomes of the centre, would be overly burdensome and could ultimately prevent the Bill achieving its goals. I know this is not the intention of Deputy O’Sullivan, who has been an advocate for injecting centres for many years and spoke so favourably about the Bill some weeks ago.

I am advised that there is no similar provision on the Statute Book. I understand that it may be the Deputy’s intention to provide what is known as a sunset clause, where the law shall cease to have effect unless further legislative action is taken to extend it. However, I have been advised that the amendment in this section does not achieve this and I cannot accept it. I do not consider this measure to be necessary given that the Bill clearly sets out that any licence issued will be for a defined period of time. The Minister is not obliged to grant a licence under the Bill. Similarly the Minister is not obliged to renew a licence either. However, under section 5 the Minister is empowered to suspend or revoke a licence. This includes where the Minister is satisfied that the licence holder is no longer eligible to hold the licence or is breach of the conditions of the licence or any regulations made under the Act. The Minister will consult with the HSE and the Garda and may bring issues to the attention of the Minster in this respect.

As the Misuse of Drugs Acts currently stand, it is illegal to operate and use an injecting centre of any sort. This Government has made a commitment to maintaining a health-lead rather than criminal justice approach to drug use. It is our intention to open an injecting centre on a pilot basis in Dublin city centre where, as many Members have agreed, there is a problem of street injection and the related challenges such behaviour gives rise to. We know the evidence internationally is very much in favour of injecting centres. However, this pilot centre will be subject to a thorough evaluation in order to assess it in an Irish context and the ability of the centre to meet the needs of people who inject drugs in Ireland. It will be evaluated to determine its safety, cost-effectiveness and benefits. The results of this pilot project will inform decisions about any further injecting centres, including whether or not the pilot facility should continue to stay open. These decisions will be based on the evidence. The pilot centre will be subject to ongoing monitoring and review, with input from the Garda, the HSE and others. While I expect the pilot centre to be a success, if for some reason it is not, then the Minister is not obliged to renew the licence or grant any other licence. If the evidence does not support the pilot service continuing, or the ongoing monitoring process suggests that the centre is not operating as intended, then the Bill enables the Minister to revoke the licence. In this way I do not see the need for any form of review clause in this Bill. Licences and centres will be subject to regular and ongoing reviews and structured evaluation.

We have witnessed this in other countries where a review of this nature became a hurdle to the work of the centre and was ultimately removed from the legislation. This was despite the fact there was a huge amount of evidence to support the injecting centre there.

There is no injection facility in New Zealand at the moment. However, an injection centre will shortly be opening in Glasgow and one opened in Paris just before Christmas. In Sydney, where there is an injection centre, authorities are returning to Parliament to look for another injection centre to be opened because the Bill at that time only sought one centre. In this Bill we are looking at having facilities so that we will not have to come back seeking further legislation.

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