Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I want to ask about a pretty pressing issue for underfunded community drugs projects, namely, the extortionate cost of insurance. I will give a couple of examples from Tallaght to show just what an impact this is having. One project was paying €2,500 six years ago for insurance. That increased to just over €6,000 three years ago. For 2023, the insurance company wanted €21,000. There were no claims against the project and the insurance company blamed the increase on medical malpractice insurance attached to the harm reduction clinic. There were no needle stick injury claims made in Tallaght or in the context of any community programme. In order to get the insurance, in the end they had to suspend the needle exchange service and point clients elsewhere. Another programme got a staggering €7,000 increase on its premium, again having not submitted any claims. I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, in respect of this matter. I received the regular reply about funding, the level of which is completely inadequate. We need action on this issue.

See this speech in context