Cork councillors back motion calling for supervised drug injection facilities

Cork city councillors have unanimously supported a motion calling for supervised injection facilities in the city centre, agreeing that there is “a serious drug problem” in Cork.

Green Party councillor and Deputy Lord Mayor Honore Kamegni had proposed exploring the establishment of supervised and controlled injection centres “to address the growing and worrying public health and safety concerns.” 

He said: “By putting in place these centres, the city will take a proactive step and approach to improving public health, supporting individuals with substance use disorders or addiction, and enhancing the overall community wellbeing.”

Serious problem

Solidarity/People Before Profit councillor Brian McCarthy strongly supported the motion, saying: “Unfortunately, it’s beyond doubt that we have quite a serious drug problem in this city, we can see signs of it everywhere.

“Some councillors in here are always calling for the law-and-order approach — more gardaí, harsher sentences, more of a crackdown.

“That approach is dangerous, it’s harmful, and it’s counterproductive — we need to start viewing this as a health issue, not a criminal one, and start seeing drug addicts as people who have an illness, not as criminals," said Mr McCarthy.

“The law-and-order approach means that we have people getting convictions locked up in jail when what they really need is medical help. We have overcrowded prisons and other issues like associated crime, discarded syringes because that approach does nothing to tackle the root cause of addiction.”

Important

Supervised injection centres are an important part of the way to tackle these issues, he said, explaining: “In places where these have been set up, they’ve been a massive success.

“They get people in off the streets while they use so they don’t get arrested for it and it gives them privacy, reduces the harm from injecting with non-sterile paraphernalia, testing facilities means dangerous situations like the nitazenes we saw here in Cork can be detected much earlier and dealt with more quickly, and access to drug and health education and addiction services can help provide the help these people need to get back on their feet.”

Mr McCarthy said other measures such as decriminalisation, legalisation, and an expansion of “critically inadequate” mental health services were needed, and that any supervised injection centre should be set up under the HSE and not privatised.

Recovering

Fianna Fáil’s Colm Kelleher said that his brother is a recovering heroin addict, adding that though he is doing well now: “I know full well the reasons why we need this facility in the city.

“It wouldn’t be too often I agree with everything Councillor McCarthy says in a contribution to a debate, but I agree with everything tonight, wholeheartedly.”

He added that a learning site visit to a similar facility in Lisbon had been undertaken by the council in recent years, and that a similar visit to Dublin’s supervised injection centre at Merchant’s Quay should be planned now.

“I do believe now is the time to put this issue back on the agenda and put momentum behind it, because this a problem facing the city on a daily basis, and the traditional approach is not working.”

Support

Fine Gael’s Shane O’Callaghan, a barrister, did not oppose the motion, but did speak in support of the law-and-order method.

“If you’re suffering from addiction, you do need support, but shoplifting and assault are not victimless crimes,” he said. “If crimes are being caused as a result of addiction, supports need to be available, but if the people concerned refuse to engage with the services, repeatedly offend again and again and there are victims, then they need custodial sentences — there has to be consequences at some point.”

The Green Party’s Oliver Moran also gave his support to the motion, saying: “The victim of addiction is the person who’s addicted, and it’s their care that should be at the centre of our response.”