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

I feel inadequate. Listening to the contributions and over recent months I have learnt that there are many people who know about addiction and who have witnessed family members struggling with their addiction. There are many who, sadly, have lost loved ones because of addiction. This Bill brings forward a new beginning for people, particularly chronic users. It is clear from the programme for Government, which Senator Ó Ríordáin would be familiar with because it happened in his time, that the Government wants this to be a health-led rather than a criminal justice-led approach to supervised injection facilities.

There are difficulties whenever something new and different is introduced, especially this. Several contributors have spoken about An Garda Síochána and its role. From my experience of speaking to people in other countries, particularly having visited Copenhagen before Christmas, the role of the police in a supervised injection facility is very much monitored by the people running it. They invite the police in. That is what we are considering. It is an illegal drug, inside or outside.Therefore, An Garda Síochána has the right, if it wishes, to enter the building if it suspects that someone is entering it for reasons other than those for which he or she should enter it. From considering the services available in Dublin in particular, I have always been of the understanding that An Garda Síochána has a pragmatic approach to people using services, whether clean injection facilities, Merchants Quay Ireland, the Ana Liffey Drug Project or any others, and that gardaí out on the beat are the people who know who the addicts and dealers are. They see them daily.

In this regard, the policing of a service such as an injecting facility is very important. It is important that there be that respect for the Garda and the people using such services, that visits to injection centres be carried out in an appropriate way and that people will not be arrested on premises simply because they are there. They go into the centre to use their drugs because of their illness - and it is an illness.

In this regard, I agree with Senator Devine, who has much more experience talking about mental health than I would ever have. Many of us have seen in our families, whether immediate or wider, people who have mental health issues or addiction issues. Most of all, what we need to do - and a number of people have said this and I have said it myself in the past - is to treat people as human beings because that is what they are. We are all citizens of this country. We all deserve certain rights, and sometimes people who are labelled as addicts do not have those rights. They are seen as misfits in society, people who brought it upon themselves and people who do not deserve services.

If the Bill is passed, as I hope it will be, it will shed a different light on people who are chronic users. There are huge difficulties regarding where the centres will be located and there will be as we go forward. When the Bill is passed and the services go out for tender, it is my understanding that there will be consultation, as there must be. There is no point in having it now because we do not know where the centres will be located. If we have consultation with the public, we might as well go to Cork and have the consultation - no offence to Cork.