Merchant's Quay Ireland injection facility granted retention permission by An Coimisiún Pleanála

The Merchants Quay Ireland in Dublin City.  The council's granting of permission was appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála by a local resident who claimed, amongst other grounds, that insufficient child-safety safeguards were in place at the facility, and that the area already had the highest concentration of drug-support facilities in the State. File picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

A medically supervised injection facility for drug users on Dublin’s quays has been granted final permission to continue with its mission by An Coimisiún Pleanála.

The injection facility, housed in the vacant basement of homeless and drugs charity Merchants Quay Ireland’s (MQI's) building on Dublin’s south quays, had first been approved for retention, or change of use, by Dublin City Council last December.

The centre first opened officially in December 2024 as part of an 18-month pilot scheme to safely monitor drug injection in controlled circumstances. Retention had been required, given the temporary nature of that pilot programme.

The council's granting of permission was appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála by a local resident who claimed, amongst other grounds, that insufficient child-safety safeguards were in place at the facility, and that the area already had the highest concentration of drug-support facilities in the State.

Dismissing that appeal, Coimisiún planning commissioner Chris McGarry said that the new facility would “not significantly detract” from the varied uses of the area, and would not detract from the visual amenity of the area or the sustainability of the local neighbourhood.

In granting final retention permission, Mr McGarry set several conditions, including that the basement should only be used as a supervised injection facility and not for other purposes unless a further grant of planning permission is sought and obtained.

The facility must now obtain a renewal of its licence from the Department of Health in order to continue operation after the initial pilot period ends in late June.

Chief executive of MQI Eddie Mullins said he was “delighted” that full permission had been granted following the appeals process.

“Safer injection facilities are essential,” he said. “It’s now time to look at other locations to ensure the most vulnerable people who use drugs have equitable access to life-saving facilities across Ireland.”

At the end of 2025, the injection facility had treated close to 300 non-fatal overdoses and had been visited more than 17,000 times in support of more than 1,500 people.

The granting of final approval for the centre was welcomed by Dublin MEP for the area, Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, who said the decision had secured the permanent future of a “life-saving service” for Dublin.

Mr Ó Ríordáin had previously served as minister of state for drugs during Labour’s last term in Government, during which he had campaigned strongly for the promotion of supervised injection facilities.

This is a hugely important day for Dublin and for humane, evidence-based drug policy in Ireland.

He said that he had initially proposed such facilities a decade ago because “I believed then, as I believe now, that nobody should be left to die on the streets of our capital”.

“(These) are lives saved, families spared grief, and vulnerable people brought into contact with care,” he said.

“Now that this service has a permanent future, the Government must go further. The demand is there, Dublin needs another medically supervised injecting facility, and we should be planning the next facilities in Cork and Limerick."