A Government Minister has said a supervised injection centre could be open in Cork "sooner" than June 2026.
Minister for Higher Education James Lawless was responding to a plea from Christine Kavanagh, a mother from Cork. Three of her sons were addicted to drugs and in the space of four years all three were dead.
Ms Kavanagh spoke to Upfront in her first TV interview, calling on the Government to do more to help families like hers.
She recalled the circumstances of her son Leon's death as "desperate".
"He was found down the lane with heroin spoons, needles, everything," she told Upfront.
Ms Kavanagh said she wants to see a supervised injection centre in Cork to help people like her sons – where those addicted to drugs can inject illegal substances under the supervision of trained health professionals.
"They can go, they can inject, they can be supervised," she explained. "My children might have been saved if they were inside in a centre."
Watch: Upfront with Katie Hannon's discussion on drugs
December 2024 saw the opening of Ireland's first medically supervised injection facility at Merchants Quay in Dublin on a pilot basis for a maximum period of 18 months.
The Department of Health said the project is being evaluated over the next 18-months and the findings "will inform decisions about the continuation of the Dublin facility and the development of new facilities in other regions".
Minister Lawless told Upfront he believes a centre for Cork could be opened sooner than that.
"The next step – and the Government’s committed to this, it’s in the Programme for Government – is that we will look at rolling these out into community settings around the country, where appropriate", he said.
Minister Lawless said the Government wants to take the findings from the Dublin pilot project "and see what’s working and what needs to be tweaked and then continue that rollout".
He said he couldn’t give a definite date, however an injection centre for Cork "could even be sooner" than June 2026.
"I do know the Government direction of travel is to support the centres. Let’s take the evidence from [Merchants Quay], let’s apply it around the country.
"I think it’s very likely that Cork would be the natural next step."
Six-month checkpoint
Minister Lawless said an evaluation of Merchants Quay later this year will further inform decisions.
"There is a six-month checkpoint in September – there’s another checkpoint at the end the year – so all of the valuable experience that came from this… will be applied to future centres," he said.
The Minister said all signs are that Merchants Quay is working.
"The evidence is really positive – everything I’m hearing about it and the statistics from Merchants Quay, and indeed from other centres internationally, are that [when] we have services in one place, we don’t have overdoses.
Head of Operations with Merchants Quay Geoff Corcoran told the show it is a much safer option.
"There's been 59 overdoses in the centre since we opened in December," he said.
"And of those 59 overdoses, only one has involved calling an ambulance.
"People are coming in where otherwise they would be using in alleys, carparks, public spaces.
"Here, people are supervised and if they go into overdose we can manage that and deal with it".
'Health-led approach’
Minister Lawless admitted that the criminal justice model of dealing with drug addiction has failed.
"The health-led approach is the way to go in my strong opinion," he said.
"Moving from the criminal justice model has patently failed – the courts are clogged up, we’re spending billions on policing justice procedures.
"We move into a health-led approach, we recognise the trauma in forming policy – we say why are people getting into addiction situations in the first place?
"We reduce the demand for drugs, we reduce the harm that they cause, and we try to pivot people back on track in their lives".
Figures from the National Drug-Related Deaths Index show there were 354 drug poisoning deaths recorded in 2021, 409 reported in 2020 - which were recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic - and 371 in 2019.
Head of Addiction Services at St John of God Hospital Prof Colin O'Gara asked Minister Lawless if he would consider declaring a COVID-style 'state of emergency' to tackle drug-deaths.
Minister Lawless did not rule out such a move but said the current plan should be kept in place.
"Everything’s possible but let’s take an evidence-based approach – we have a pilot up and running in Merchants Quay, we have a review in that in September," he said.
"We’re making progress, I think we should keep going on that track".
Upfront with Katie Hannon airs Mondays at 10.35pm on RTÉ One and on the RTÉ Player.
