Parents outraged at safe injecting centre opening beside Dublin primary school

Parents are not happy with the decision.

Earlier this morning on Opinions Matter with Adrian Kennedy and Jeremy Dixon, parents voiced their outrage at a safe injection centre being placed close to their children's primary school. Over the years locals have appealed to have the centre moved as their children are faced with scenes of violence and drug use daily on their way to and from school as there are already other drug clinics located nearby. Around 100 drug users are expected to use Ireland's first supervised heroin injection centre every day which will be built just 150 meters from St Audoen's primary school in Dublin City Centre. While many support the building of a safe injection centre parents are naturally concerned at it's proximity to the school and have questioned why it could not be built in a different area. Already Dublin 8 has a high number of drug related facilities and locals are frustrated at the decision to put another one not just on their doorstep but on the doorstep on a primary school.

"My daughter goes to the school, I work in town and the amount of time I've had to bring a bottle of methadone around to the pharmacy to dispose of it. What if a child got their hands on it?"

Even those from outside the area agreed with the concerned parents that the planning for the centre location made no sense at all;

"Terrible planning. Injection clinics should be in hospitals so they can dispose needles in a proper manner." "It looks like the level of common sense is still lacking in the people responsible for making these decisions. How they didn't expect a backlash about this is beyond me."

Staff at the school have also voiced their concerns saying that their pupils have already been subjected to stepping over drug paraphernalia and seeing people being resuscitated and that the area already has an over saturation of rehab and drug centres.

"So we’re a Deis school in the inner city. Now I’m not big on labels – I don’t label the kids – but the whole initiative of Deis is to deliver equal opportunities. But this is not equal… and it wouldn’t happen in other parts of societies, so it’s a postcode issue. Is it? That’s my perception of it, so I don’t know what else it could be."