Why do they dump a drug-injection room in middle of the city?

POLITICAL opposition to a proposed pilot drug-injecting room in Dublin City Centre is intensifying since the Irish Mail on Sunday published details of Garda and Ministerial concerns.

Dublin City Council will debate an emergency motion calling on the Government to open a full consultation on the plan. A number of councillors have referred to the plan, being championed by Junior Health Minister Catherine Byrne, as a total disaster.

Councillor Nial Ring, who represents the north inner city, is putting down a motion calling for ‘a consultation process including all the stakeholders’.

He said: ‘Minister Byrne is trying to dump a drug-injecting room right into the middle of the area [the north inner city]. What’s the message? Come into Dublin 1 in the evening and see the junkies passing by followed by the obvious entourage of seller, pusher and others who exploit this vulnerable group.’

Mr Ring’s motion calls on Ms Byrne to look at using mobile units instead of the city centre clinic.

Councillor Mannix Flynn, who represents the south inner city, where there are already a large number of drug-treatment centres, said: ‘This is a disaster… the addict will know there will definitely be heroin in the injection rooms and they will congregate there. What will happen is people will be mugged for their gear, they will be assaulted and threatened. They will know that anybody that is going into the rooms will have heroin.’

Mr Flynn said that Ms Byrne’s plan will only attract dealers to the centre.

‘Seagulls only congregate around the trawler because they know there is fish on board,’ he said.

‘This is the wrong way to go. You must give people resources for detoxification and give resources for residential treatment.’

The MoS revealed last week that Minister Finian McGrath doesn’t ‘agree with having all the services in one or two streets’ in the city centre, and gardaí in a confidential report said it would be ‘impossible to police’.

However Ms Byrne says this facility will be a ‘safe harbour for chronic drug users’ and ‘I want to assure you that no decisions have been made on location’.

But the Department of Health confirmed last week that the centre will be in Dublin city centre.

Gardaí said last night that while the memo the MoS published last week was ‘factually correct’, and produced by a Garda sergeant, senior gardaí will assist the pilot facility in achieving its objectives.

‘An Garda Síochána will do all it can to assist in ensuring the pilot facility succeeds in achieving its objectives. We are developing the necessary policing strategies in preparation for the opening of this facility,’ said a spokesman.