Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for bringing this legislation forward. I pay tribute to her for her five years of work in the health committee under the previous Administration. I am aware of her commitment to this issue and I appreciate the work she has done. I also pay tribute to Senator Ó Ríordáin who did a huge amount of work on this when he was a Minister of State. I thank him for that.

This legislation is the correct way to deal with this issue. It will provide protection for people who are injecting drugs. It is about trying to provide some support for those people and to protect them from contracting other infections and diseases. It is an appropriate way to deal with it. It will not be easy to establish the system initially but once it is up and running it will provide clear evidence of its benefit not only to the people who are, unfortunately, drug users but also to the wider community. We have much work to do in this area. Senator Swanick is right about education, both in secondary schools and universities, to try to reduce the number of people who get involved with drugs. It will not be easy but we must put more effort into it.

One of my concerns, and the Minister referred to it in her contribution, is the authorised users and those under 18 years of age, those who are not chronic intravenous drug users or those who are pregnant. This arose in the health committee previously. When somebody is pregnant and on drugs it causes a problem when the baby is delivered. A number of children are going into detoxification after they are born. I am not sure that we have done enough work in that area in terms of giving support to girls and women who are pregnant and are on drugs. Due to using the drugs for a long period of time they are unable to get off them during their pregnancy. It is not clear that we provide enough support for them. Perhaps the Minister would deal with that.

Section 8 of the Bill provides for unidentified data to be shared with the Minister and the HSE. It is important that it is unidentified so the people using the facility do not feel at risk. However, it is important that we monitor this and get appropriate data to help us devise and further develop services.

The other issue is the risk for the licence holder. That is appropriately dealt with in section 9 to ensure there is no legal liability for the licence holder. This means we will not restrict somebody from applying for a licence when he or she can offer appropriate facilities and appropriate supervision in the facilities. We have a long road to travel in this area. What is happening in Dublin is beginning to happen in Cork. Needles are being found in the side streets near one of the methadone clinics. Obviously it means that the methadone facility is used as the centre where people make contact. My concern is that where there is a injecting facility, and there is a facility established in Dublin, there will also be a higher risk of dealers being attracted to the immediate area. It is something that should be considered. I raised it with Senator Ó Ríordáin earlier.

Can we put legislation in place which would provide for a higher penalty for anybody who is found dealing drugs within a particular radius of such a facility? I am not sure if that is possible but it is something we should consider. I realise it will not deter dealers or move them away, but at least it would be an additional mechanism to discourage people from using the injecting facility as a location to deal. The same could apply to areas near methadone facilities. We should examine whether that is covered by existing legislation and, if necessary, bring forward amending legislation. It might even be something we could include in this legislation. Perhaps the Department would consider that suggestion. The people who will be attending these facilities are already under pressure and they will be under additional pressure if dealers are openly assembling in the immediate area of the facilities. It is something that might be taken into consideration.

I welcome the Bill. It is the appropriate way of dealing with this issue. However, we have much work to do and this is just one step in that regard.