Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The "Prime Time" programme on O'Connell Street highlighted again the many problems impacting on our city centre. It is not only a feature of the north-east inner city but also in my own constituency where residents in the south inner city have raised with me many concerns around crime and anti-social behaviour in their areas. Clearly this is a multifaceted problem requiring a multi-agency approach. Key to it is the presence of more visible community policing on the streets and I have raised that with local police and urge that that be a major element but there are other ways by which these issues can be addressed. Recently, my colleague Deputy Ó Riordáin and I met with Merchants Quay Ireland and heard its real concern at the delay in the introduction of supervised injecting facilities on its premises which is one way of addressing serious problems around open drug use on city streets which creates its own difficulties for local residents but very seriously it is also a health and safety issue for those injecting on the streets. A change in the law was secured by Deputy Ó Riordáin in 2015 to deliver supervised injecting facilities in the city centre but the plan has run into difficulty since. There is a real lack of urgency from this Government in pursuing and making progress on this. It is something that was agreed some years ago and which could be rolled out even on a mobile basis. Will the Government commit to the roll-out of other regional self injecting facility centres? Will it commit to addressing the serious concerns of inner city residents around the lack of visible community policing also?

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