'It won’t happen overnight': Cork drug injection centre to take up to five years to deliver

Merchants Quay Ireland called on Government to commit to supervised injection in the city, while Cork TD says failure to act 'will cost lives'

A medically supervised drug injection centre in Portugal: Pádraig Rice, Social Democrats TD for Cork South Central, said there was an urgent need for a supervised injection centre in the city.

It would take up to five years to deliver a supervised injection centre for Cork due to planning and procurement processes, the head of addiction services provider Merchants Quay Ireland has said.

Eddie Mullins, whose organisation runs the only medically supervised injection centre in the country in Dublin, said: “With the best will in the world, it would take five years from agreement to have one in Cork, to get through planning, to selecting a service provider and finding a location."