Permanent future for Dublin supervised injecting facility secured – now it’s time for more, says Ó Ríordáin
Permanent future for Dublin supervised injecting facility secured - now it’s time for more, says Ó Ríordáin - The Labour Party
Dublin MEP and Labour Party Dublin spokesperson Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has welcomed the rejection of the planning appeal against Ireland’s first medically supervised injecting facility at Merchants Quay, saying the decision secures the permanent future of a life-saving service for Dublin.
Ó Ríordáin, who as Minister of State for Drugs secured Cabinet approval for the legislation underpinning supervised injecting facilities in 2015, said the evidence is now overwhelming that harm reduction saves lives and that Ireland must move further towards treating drug use as a health issue, not a criminal justice issue.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin MEP said:
“This is a hugely important day for Dublin and for humane, evidence-based drug policy in Ireland.
“When I was Minister with responsibility for drugs, I brought forward the proposal for Ireland’s first medically supervised injecting facility because I believed then, as I believe now, that nobody should be left to die on the streets of our capital.
“The evidence from Merchants Quay is undeniable. As of the end of last year, this facility had treated more than 270 non-fatal overdoses, supported over 1,500 people, and had been visited more than 17,000 times. Those are not just statistics. They are lives saved, families spared grief, and vulnerable people brought into contact with care.
“Now that this service has a permanent future, the Government must go further. The demand is there, Dublin needs another medically supervised injecting facility, and we should be planning the next facilities in Cork and Limerick. This cannot be a one-off pilot forever. It must be the beginning of a national harm reduction network.
“This is part of a wider shift we urgently need: drug use must be treated as a medical and social issue, not a matter of criminal justice. In my role as an MEP, I am working to bring the decriminalisation of the drug user onto the European agenda, learning from countries like Portugal where a health-led approach has shown real results.
“Harm reduction works. Compassion works. The politics of stigma and delay has failed. Ireland now needs the courage to follow the evidence.”