Proposed Merchants Quay injecting facility will 'save lives', project coordinator claims

The proposed drug injecting centre at Merchants Quay Ireland will save lives.

That is the view of the Project Coordinator for the Medically Supervised Injecting Facility in Dublin.

The centre aims to reduce the risk of death by overdose and increase the uptake in treatment.

However, nearly 100 planning objections have been raised against the project.

Project Coordinator Derek Parker says centres like this have been successful across the world:

"One person a day in Ireland dies from a drug overdose.

"These healthcare facilities save lives by providing a clean, medically supervised and compassionate space for people who are injected drugs to do so.

"There is over 120 of these facilities world-wide. They are in over 60 cities, they are in cities like Barcelona, Paris and Sydney.

All the international evidence show these facilities work.

However, not everyone is convinced by the planned injection centre, which has had nearly 100 planning objections.

Martin Harte from the Temple Bar Company has highlighted some of the issues he has with the plans:

"You want to get people off drugs there needs to be rehabilitation, is there rehabilitation in Ireland at the moment? Is it sufficient? No," he said.

"Are we allowing people go out on the street to beg, borrow, steal and take a poison and bring it into a centre and take it? Yeah.

"How the hell is that a liberal drug policy? How is that healthy for anybody? How is that harm reduction? Give me a break," he said.