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

I wish to address one or two points before I conclude. Does Senator Devine wish me to tell her now, tomorrow, next week or the week after that there will be four new detox beds in St. James’s Hospital? I cannot do that, but I will give a commitment that I will do everything I can within my role as Minister of State with responsibility for the national drugs strategy to make sure that we make rehabilitation and detox beds very much part of the national drugs strategy and to increase the number of beds. There is no point in us bringing people through a process of working in the community with drug addiction, bringing in counsellors and project workers and trying to co-ordinate the area of substance misuse if when people come out the other end there is nowhere for them to go. It is not adequate to have only a small amount of detox beds and that is something on which I will give my personal commitment. I do not have a chequebook but I give my personal commitment that I will come back to the House on the issue.

The public consultation will be announced near the end of July and people will have an opportunity to feed into the national drugs strategy. Then it will go back to the commission and when the national drugs strategy is being formulated, people will also have a chance to look at it and to contribute to it.

In response to Senator Ó Ríordáin, ten years ago when I was spokesperson on the drugs strategy for Fine Gael in opposition, one of the key points I made was about medically-supervised injection centres. That has not gone off the radar. It is there. The Bill is coming in the autumn and we will ensure it will happen. I will not give the Senator a commitment on a date, for example, that we will open a project on 31 December but I will give a commitment that in 2017 if I am still in this position I will prioritise and push for the establishment of medically-supervised injection centres because they work. They have been shown to work in various countries around the world. The issue has not gone off the radar. Is Senator Ó Ríordáin going to withdraw the amendment?