78. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health if work is being carried out in her Department to plan for a medically supervised injection centre in Cork; if any such work will be carried out in advance of the findings of the 18-month pilot phase of the supervised injection facility in Dublin city centre; if any potential sites in Cork have been identified; if consideration is only being given to mobile supervised injection facilities outside of Dublin; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [65000/25]

Deputy Pádraig Rice: My question is about safe injection facilities. Last month I asked a parliamentary question about establishing a safe injection facility in Cork city. I was told it would not be considered until the 18-month pilot in Dublin was concluded. For the one in Dublin, it took nine years between Cabinet approval and setting it up. We cannot have the same level of delay in Cork city. We need a health-led approach to drugs and we need to start considering and planning a safe injection facility for Cork city. Failure to act here will cost lives.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor, Minister of State at the Department of Health: I thank the Deputy for a very important question. As he knows, the independent evaluation of the national drugs strategy, Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery, assisted with the expansion of harm reduction in a significant way. Our new drugs strategy will be launched next year, hopefully. That is very important to us. We have found that the harm reduction initiatives were a central component of the health-led approach to drug use, with a focus on reducing the adverse health and social impacts associated with drug use.

One significant harm reduction initiative is the establishment of supervised injection facilities. Last year, as the Deputy said, the Department of Health granted a licence to operate Ireland's first supervised injection facility at Merchants Quay Ireland. I do not know whether he has been to see it but I have been out there a few times. It is an absolutely fabulous facility. It opened on 22 December 2024. I am happy to report that to date the facility has assisted over 1,000 individual clients who have made over 7,500 visits. Crucially, there were over 120 successful interventions to prevent a fatal overdose. I have provided additional funding to extend the opening hours to facilitate this, which was important. The HSE is overseeing the evaluation of the 18-month pilot phase of this facility. The evaluation will inform decisions as to whether we continue this facility or look at opening new ones in other areas. I understand the HSE has recently completed its six-month interim evaluation and I will look at that now. I am committed to a health-led response to drug use, including the provision of harm reduction initiatives based on population need. The successor to the national drugs strategy will consider the next steps in delivering a health-led response, including the demand for additional supervised facilities.

Importantly, the programme for Government 2025 commits to exploring the establishment of mobile medically supervised injection facilities in areas of need, so we are looking at areas of need. The medical supervised injection facility operated by licence on the 18-month pilot basis, that is, Merchants Quay's own licence, will be thoroughly evaluated to assess this impact. The information will assist in assessing the potential need for the benefit of mobile injection facilities. The existing legislation does not allow for mobile supervised injection facilities as only facilities on fixed premises are specific on this.

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