Cork city 'absolutely needs' supervised injecting centre for addicts, says Taoiseach

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that Cork “absolutely” needs an injection facility for drug users in the city.

However, he told The Echo that it was not for him to say where such a facility should be located.

“I would be in favour of that, but the issue will be location, and it is not for me to identify where the ideal location is,” he said.

“But certainly, we have to be innovative in helping people to come off addiction and deal with addiction.” 

The Taoiseach’s comments come as the Department of Health has indicated it will consider calls to expand drug injection centres to Cork and Limerick, once an evaluation of Ireland’s sole facility, which is located in Dublin, is published.

That injection facility, run by the homeless and drugs charity Merchants Quay Ireland, first opened officially in December 2024 as part of an 18-month pilot scheme to safely monitor drug injection in controlled circumstances.

Mr Martin had praise for the country’s first centre and welcomed the prospect of an expansion of its service to the State’s second city.

“The Merchants Quay project has been effective, impactful, and successful, and I think that we do absolutely need such a facility in Cork, but I will engage with the professional interests involved,” he said.

The Merchant Quay’s facility, which is housed in the basement of charity’s building on Dublin’s south quays, was granted retention by Dublin City Council last December, which was necessary given the temporary nature of its pilot programme.

Dublin City Council’s decision which was upheld last month by Coimisiún Pleanála following an appeal by a local resident.

The charity must now apply for a renewal of its Department of Health licence when the pilot ends later this month.

An evaluation report of the Dublin pilot scheme – due to be published later in the summer – is likely to inform thinking around any expansion of services to Cork and Limerick.

That report states that there had been 107 medical interventions in Dublin, including 91 overdose responses with oxygen, and no fatalities recorded.

The interim review of Merchant Quay’s services found there had been 292 unique clients in December 2024, shortly after the service opened, and by June 2025, there had been more than 5,000 visits by more than 800 clients.

On average, between 2018 and 2022, there were 35 deaths a year in Cork city. Opioids accounted for the main drug in poisoning deaths (75.7%), followed by benzodiazepines (59.3%), gabapentinoids (27.9%), and cocaine (14.3%).

Earlier this year, David Lane, HSE South West general manager and regional lead for social inclusion, told The Echo there was a need for a service to people struggling with addiction “so they don’t have to be hiding, moving from one place to another to avoid contact with gardaí”.

“A medically-supervised consumption room in the city deals with all of this - it eliminates the significant challenges local communities have with public drug use and discarded paraphernalia, but also helps eliminate overdoses,” Mr Lane said.

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