There’s a ‘chronic need’ for supervised injection facility

More pressure needs to be put on public representatives to make sure that a supervised injection facility is delivered for Cork city, according to staff at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral.

Eoin Murphy, Operations Manager at St Fin Barre’s said he and his staff have been managing what he called an “unsupervised injection centre” on the cathedral grounds, but that this was not sustainable.

The comments were made at a meeting of the UCC Area Neighbourhood Safety Forum on Tuesday night. He said there was a “chronic need” for a supervised facility to support drug users.

“They (drug users) will never stabilise their lives until there’s a wrap-around facility,” he said.

He said he had visited the medically supervised injection facility on Merchants Quay in Dublin, and a facility like that was needed for Cork.

“It may not be the most attractive thing to have, but it has to be done.

“I deal with unsupervised injections every day, myself and my staff deal with them, and we do deal with it. But we need support. And if it comes to it, we’ll put a portakabin on the grounds of the cathedral,” he said.

An integrated services hub is currently under development by the HSE, but is not expected to be completed until 2027.

The issue of drug dealing was raised as an issue by other residents. One resident said they had seen multiple instances on Connaught Avenue, and that the issue has gotten worse over the past 18 months.

Community Garda Laura O’Connor said it was important that residents report all instances to the gardaí.

She said due to the increased focus on high-visibility policing in the city centre - which she said was very welcome - she was able to spend less time on her normal beat in the areas around UCC.

She encouraged residents to contact the gardaí directly on 999 or 112.

This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.