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

Many questions were asked, and I will have to decipher some of my handwriting.

I thank the Senators who took part in the debate on the Bill. Before I reply to a number of the points that have been raised, I reiterate that the Bill is about reaching out to those people who are chronic drug users and who may also face other problems such as mental heath issues and homelessness. Every person who uses drugs is a human being with a family and a community. Unfortunately, drug use can affect schoolchildren, students, mothers and fathers. What they have in common is drug use which has a problematic effect on their lives and which may impact on their relationships with their families and friends and the wider community and society.

The problem of street injecting is not always apparent, especially when it occurs in areas that are already socially deprived or neglected. It is even less apparent when it affects those in society who are marginalised, such as homeless people. No one chooses to inject drugs on the street. This is what the most desperate in our community and our society are driven to. We must reach out to help them, and this is what this Bill and the injecting centre aim to do.

The Bill does not provide for an exact location of the injecting centre in line with the experience of other countries. The location of the centre should be considered where the need of drug users is greatest. The views of local stakeholders should also be considered. As I said last week in the Dáil, the supervised injecting centre will be located where need is greatest. This is why I have asked the HSE to set up a working group. The group is engaged in a process of identifying where the effects of public injecting are most prevalent. The group will address the particular issues of setting up a pilot service, including consultation locally and ongoing monitoring and evaluation.

In that regard, as a Minister of State, a public representative and a citizen of this country, wherever this centre is located, I want the residents and the community around it to be fully aware of what it will do before it opens. If we do not inform them, if we do not have consultation, it will only highlight other matters that need not be highlighted. I think there will be a real buy-in. I spoke about injecting centres last week at a meeting in the Liberties at which the issue was raised. I was very surprised by the reaction from people in general when they got the full gist of what the centre was about.

It is the intention on passing the Bill to open an injecting centre on a pilot basis in Dublin city.Cork wants one as well. I will just throw that in for what it is worth. The pilot will be subject to an ongoing monitoring review with input from An Garda Síochána, the HSE and others. This pilot centre will be subject to a thorough evaluation in order to assess it in the Irish context, and how it meets the needs of people who inject drugs and indeed the wider community. The results of this pilot will inform decisions about any further injecting centres, including whether the pilot centre should continue to stay open. These decisions will be evidence-based.

The Bill clearly sets out that the licence issued will be for a defined period of time. The Minister is not obliged to grant a licence under the Bill and similarly the Minister is not obliged to renew a licence. Under section 5, the Minister is empowered to suspend or revoke a licence. This can occur when the Minister is satisfied that the licenceholder is no longer eligible to hold the licence or is in breach of the conditions of the licence or any relevant regulations made under the Act. The Minister will consult with the HSE, An Garda Síochána and others who may bring issues to the attention of the Minister in that respect. While I expect the pilot centre to be successful, if for some reason it is not, the Minister is not obliged to renew the licence or grant a further licence. If the evidence does not support the pilot service continuing, or if ongoing monitoring suggests that the centre is not operating as it should, the Bill enables the Minister to revoke the licence.

This Bill has been very carefully drafted to address the health-related harm associated with public injecting while ensuring that the misuse of drugs legislation remains undiluted in any way. Possession of controlled drugs will continue to be an offence outside an injecting centre. Possession for sale or supply will remain an offence both inside and outside the centre.

I will close with a statement I made in the Dáil last week about a poem. I will not go through the poem. I have taken three lines out of it which I believe are key to what supervised injecting centres should be about. It is a beautiful verse, but I would just like to recite three lines:

Restoring hope

Opening doors

To life anew

That is what we are able to do with injecting centres. This Bill and this supervised injecting centre will open doors and restore hope. I thank the Chair and all the Senators for their contributions and for their knowledge around this issue. Anybody who has been in the Seanad this afternoon has already made a huge impact with this Bill, not only as individuals but in communities as well. I thank the Chair again and I thank the officials from the Department for their services over the last couple of weeks, particularly in putting the Bill together and helping me bring it through the different Stages. We are not finished yet but we are getting there.