God recruited to join f ight against city injection clinic

Business group claims addicts’ facility could break church teaching

OPPONENTS of a controversial drug injection clinic believe they can stop it from going ahead by invoking the canon law of the Catholic Church.

A business group opposed to the establishment of a heroin injection facility at Merchant’s Quay Ireland, which is located on the premises of a Franciscan order friary, has instructed legal counsel to investigate whether the plan violates canon law.

The legal team of the Temple Bar Company, which has opposed the plan from the outset, believes that the Church’s strict teachings opposing the consumption of illegal drugs would prevent the plan.

A local school has also instructed its solicitors to write to the Franciscan Order on Merchant’s Quay saying that injection centre ‘contradicts the Franciscans’ core mission’.

The Government has given the go ahead for a facility that allows addicts to legally inject heroin at Merchants Quay Ireland.

Last week it was revealed that there have been over 100 objections to the project, including challenges from U2’s Bono and Edge, co-owners of the nearby Clarence Hotel.

Now in an unusual move, the solicitors representing the Temple Bar Company said last night that they believe that the plan is ‘contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church’.

A legal spokesman for the Temple Bar Company said: ‘We are instructing counsel to consider the implications of canon law and whether or not an activity such as sanctioning drug use would be in compliance with the Church’s teachings’.

The group believes the businesses it represents will be adversely affected by the project.

The spokesman said: ‘The Church takes the view that God gave you your body. It is only on lease to you, you don’t own it so... anything like that is actually damaging what God gave you,’ said the spokesman.’

The Temple Bar Company’s legal advice is that the Franciscan Order’s lease of the premises to the Merchant’s Quay Project may have a clause that says it must not be used for activities that are against the ‘teachings of the Church’.

Last month, Merchants Quay Ireland lodged its plans with Dublin City Council for the State’s first medically supervised injection centre that is to cater for around 60 addicts each day.

The application involves the redevelopment of 13/14 Merchant’s Quay in Dublin 8 to include the provision of seven injecting rooms in the basement of the building.

Solicitors acting for neighbouring St Audoen’s national school, claimed that an existing needle exchange facility causes pupils ‘ongoing distress on a daily basis’.

Merchants Quay Ireland believes the facility will reduce drug use in public places, drug-related litter, public health risks such as needle injuries and public order problems linked with open drug use.

‘Ongoing distress on a daily basis’