Ireland’s first medically supervised heroin-injection facility will be “up and running in the coming days” with the facility, located at Merchant’s Quay Ireland’s Riverbank Centre in Dublin city centre to open this month, as part of an 18 month pilot programme.
The HSE hopes that it could be extended beyond the pilot despite concerns about the prominent city centre facility being located just 150 metres away from a primary school which previously voiced objections.Those in the area have also expressed concerns that the facility could attract increased drug use and antisocial behavior.
The centre is located in the basement of the building, and will provide a large space for intravenous drug users to inject drugs under the supervision of trained medical professionals. Construction workers could be seen finishing work on the centre this week. It will operate seven days a week, for about seven hours a day.
The facility will be headed by Eddie Mullins, CEO of Merchants Quay Ireland. Merchant’s Quay Ireland has previously said it believes the location will be safer, and will remove some open drug use and litter from streets of the city.
The facility, included in the Programme for Government, was first proposed at Cabinet in 2015 by former Labour MP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, who was then Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy.
Objections followed, relating to planning and notably from a local primary school in Dublin city centre. St Audoen’s National School objected to the supervised injecting room after some of its young pupils witnessed a woman overdose on heroin in 2019.
Children as young as five witnessed a woman collapse from a heroin overdose outside their school before she was eventually revived, The Irish Examiner reported at the time.
The supervised injection room “backs on to the school,” with principal Meagher saying that drug use is not something children should see. “Significant problems” will arise from the opening of the centre, she said.
“It does sound horrific, but unfortunately it is pretty commonplace. The current situation in Merchant’s Quay and the service already being provided is immensely problematic for us as a school in terms of our child protection ability,” the school principal said.
“That is a huge issue. If this goes ahead, there are significant problems going to arise.”
In 2020, the national school, which has nearly 200 pupils and 40 staff, brought a High Court challenge relating to the permission that had been granted for the facility. A judge ruled the following year that the planning permission granted by An Bord Pleanála was invalid following the judicial review taken by the board of a primary school.
In his ruling in July 2021, Mr Justice Garrett Simmons said there had been an “inexplicable” and “startling” failure of the planning board to deal with the concerns of St Audeon’s National School in its decision to grant permission for the centre immediately beside the school.
He said the proposed facility would allow the possession of drugs near the facility and the school feared that this would create a “drugs marketplace”.
The school had produced evidence from psychiatrists on the negative effect on children witnessing such behaviour. However, the judge said there was no reference to the school or its pupils in the planning board’s decision.
The HSE, however, has backed the move, saying that a survey it conducted found that 75% of people said that they felt unsafe when they were injecting on the streets, whilst 98% said they wanted privacy.
Ireland’s health service also said it has taken advice from the European Union Drug Agency and visited facilities in Denmark, Paris in France, Barcelona in Spain and in Portugal. The HSE has claimed that such facilities will reduce drug-related overdose deaths; reduce the risks of disease transmission through shared needles; reduce public health risks such as needle-stick injuries as well as “connect the most vulnerable and marginalised people who use drugs with treatment services and other health and social services.”
The HSE states that such facilities provide a “clean, safe healthcare environment” where people can inject drugs under the supervision of trained health professionals.
The imminent opening of the facility comes nine years after the Government approved the Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill 2015 to allow for supervised injecting facilities and commenced the process of enacting the bill into legislation. Funding was announced for development of the Dublin city centre facility in 2017.
The introduction of a medically supervised drug injection facility for addicts featured prominently in party manifestos ahead of the recent General Election. Fine Gael has been among parties to call for an abandonment of the current criminal approach to people in possession of illicit drugs in favour of a “health-led” strategy.
Among election pledges, Fine Gael said it will consider mobile medically supervised injecting facilities, explicitly mentioning building on the ongoing work at Merchant’s Quay. Meanwhile, Fianna Fail said one of its priorities regarding drug use was to decriminalise drug possession for personal use.
CEO Eddie Mullins has said the centre will ensure individuals using drugs are treated with “dignity,” previously telling the Irish Times: “We believe the [facility] will be very successful and it will save lives. It is exciting because for the first time we are saying: ‘People in addiction are unwell’ and we are treating them with a bit of dignity.”