Department open to considering drug injection facilities in Cork and Limerick
The Merchants Quay Ireland pilot medically supervised injection centre was granted final retention permission by the national planning board a fortnight ago. File Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie
The Department of Health has signalled it will consider calls to expand drug injection centres to Cork and Limerick once an evaluation report on the country’s sole facility in Dublin is published.
The Merchants Quay Ireland pilot medically supervised injection centre was granted final retention permission by the national planning board a fortnight ago.
The charity will now apply to obtain a renewal of its licence from the Department of Health to continue operation when the pilot terms ends later this month.
An external evaluation of the pilot, which formed part of the licence, is due to be published later in the summer.
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In a statement to the , the department said that, in December 2024, it granted a licence to Merchants Quay Ireland to operate a pilot supervised injecting facility in Dublin city centre for a maximum period of 18 months.
“[Merchants Quay Ireland] has been invited to apply for a licence extension to continue operating to the end of the year,” it said.
“This extension will allow for the completion of the evaluation report.”
It pointed out that the HSE is overseeing the evaluation of the 18-month pilot phase of the facility.
“The evaluation commenced in March 2025 and is ongoing,” the statement said.
“The evaluation report is anticipated to be completed at the end of Q3 2026.”
In relation to potential expansion of such facilities outside Dublin, the statement said: “The findings of the evaluation will inform future decisions on applications for licences for facilities in Dublin and elsewhere, depending on local need.”
It said the health minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, will examine whether or not to invite Merchants Quay Ireland to put in a request for similar facilities elsewhere.
“Following consideration of the evaluation report, the minister can decide whether to invite [Merchants Quay Ireland] to apply for a licence to operate a medically supervised injection centre on an ongoing basis and whether to establish similar facilities in other areas of need,” the statement said.
“Interest has been expressed in establishing a medically supervised injection centre, and/or a mobile facility, in Cork and Limerick.”
The Government legislated for the establishment, licensing, operation, and regulation of supervised injecting facilities in the Misuse of Drugs (Supervised Injecting Facilities) Act 2017, but it took a lengthy period for the pilot to overcome legal objections to commence operations.
A decision by Dublin City Council to extend planning permission for the centre was appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála by a local resident.
The resident claimed, amongst other grounds, that insufficient child safety safeguards were in place at the facility, adding that the area already had the highest concentration of drug-support facilities in the State.
Dismissing that appeal last month, planning commissioner Chris McGarry said that the facility would “not significantly detract” from the varied uses of the area, adding that it would not detract from the visual amenity of the area or the sustainability of the local neighbourhood.
Mr McGarry set several conditions in granting final retention permission, 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.
Figures show that 1,500 people visited the Merchants Quay Ireland facility more than 17,000 times between December 2024 and last November. More than 270 non-fatal overdoses were treated at the facility.
The Cork Local Drugs and Alcohol Task Force has repeatedly called for an injection centre for the city.
Last December, the Health Research Board reported there were 343 drug poisoning deaths in 2022 (most recent data) and that 32 of these involved injecting.
The report said that, where they had data, almost one in four of the deceased (65) had ever injected.
A report by UCC last year found that more than 80,000 syringes were provided to users in Cork City in 2023, compared to 67,000 in 2019 through pharmacies.
A total of 119 drug users entering treatment in the city in 2023 were injecting, compared to 145 in 2022 and 200 in 2019.
- Cormac O'Keeffe is the Security Correspondent with the
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