Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend the courage of the Government, Senator Ó Ríordáin, and the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, led and inspired by people working on the front line from Ana Liffey. I also speak from my experience of eight years working for the Cork Simon Community. It is above all a matter of dignity. It is bad enough to have an addiction but for a person to have to crawl into a grubby undignified space in a public zone to take a substance which is not going to be great for him or her but which his or her body needs and is unable to do without it, and for that person possibly to die in that place, friendless and without help, is not something that any civilised society should tolerate. It is a first step towards addressing this difficult problem which very often was not created today or yesterday. It often affects people let down by their families or the State, people leaving care. The next step in their difficult lives is to be injecting in a public space in front of us all. This is above all a question of dignity but it also offers hope and possibility for people.

The pilot will be in Dublin but this needs to be considered in Cork. We are being grown up in Dublin but we need to be grown up in other places. We should have many locations rather than one big place that everybody gets het up about, as it were, and that is a honeypot for dealers and others. I commend Senator Devine's solution that it is a voluntary corps in the Garda. I think Senator Ruane would also support that.

I fully endorse this Bill. It is another aspect of Ireland growing up and facing up to its challenges, offering dignity and hope to people who have often been let down but also seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I commend all present and this important legislation.